#also shadow toshiro could get it. sorry

[crocrubies]

your inescapable curse

[hotvintagepoll]

hotvintagepoll Hot Men Tournament rundown thoughts

I promised a final recap post and here it is! I'll try to cover the questions I saw the most as we closed out the bracket, reveal my ✨secret faves✨, and talk about the biggest surprises and turnarounds I saw in the brackets.

Yes, this will get silly.

ROUND 1

As I've mentioned before, I worked off submissions for who to include in the bracket, so if your fave was missing—that's why. I used submitted pics when I could, but many submissions didn't have one, so I tried to find decent ones in the couple of days I had to prep the first round (I didn't always succeed). By decent, I mean pics where 1) I could see the hot man's face, so not too much moody lighting, and 2) hopefully conveyed something about his vibe, even if it was a funny thing (yes, I showed Howard Keel in full Shakespeare get-up—I'm not beyond putting up a pic because I think it's funny). I didn't know all of these hotties going in, so some I had to guess with, but when I could I tried to pick shots that had a touch of the humor, class, or genre of the hot man.

For Round 1 and Round 2, I grouped the hotties by each decade, so only '60s actors ran against '60s actors, '50s against '50s, etc. Male beauty standards shifted pretty dramatically over the sixty years this tournament covers, and I didn't think it was fair to pit dramatically different styles of beauty against each other immediately.

I pitted hot men against each other based on opposing energies—hot vs cold, elegant vs rough, comedy vs drama, etc.. I wanted the polls to be interesting and I've never liked brackets where everyone is clearly in different "lanes" until the finals! I also wanted to make polls where I couldn't tell which way they would swing, so by setting matchups that felt opposite but equal, I got to be surprised by the bracket results too.

The only reason we had any three-way matchups is because the amount of men submitted didn't round to a nice bracket number. I don't like them generally and find them really hard to balance.

Secret faves from Round 1—I am a James Coburn girlie and knew he would die immediately, so that was not a shock but a bummer. I similarly knew Robert Preston is only magical to people who have seen him do His Little Dance Routines in That One Iowa Musical, but it would have been nice for him to last longer.

Surprises—Jeremy Brett was a last-minute add and I didn't think he really had a shot, so I put him in as a third wheel on the Sean Connery/Dean Martin matchup. Little did I count on the Granada girlies. (Always count on the Granada girlies.) The Elvis/Peter Falk poll was the first one to gain any momentum—Elvis was winning for the first 24 hours but then, my god, did Peter fight back. I didn't expect the Tab/Toshiro poll to make that bad a mincemeat out of Tab—people have different tastes, and I thought the people who like blonde sunny All American white boys might turn out for The Blonde Sunny All American White Boy. Sorry, Tab. I hope you've peeled yourself off the sidewalk by now. And, of course, I was SHOCKED and APPALLED that James Cagney would be obliterated by, of all people, Mr. Bing Crosby.

SHADOW BRACKET

The fervor of the Harold Lloyd and Fredric March people inspired the shadow bracket, and I couldn't be happier at the way it's gone. You were right, the original photos I had for them did suck. Cunty Harold Lloyd in his little life guard uniform was a revelation.

ROUND 2

For Round 2 I'd gotten a better sense of who was doing well and who was not, so a little of that came into play, but I mostly paired on vibes again. (I genuinely think this is a good way to make a fun, challenging bracket.)

Secret faves—Noooo not hot dilf Dick Van Dyke don't take my hot inventor dilf away uwu!!! (He was up against Marlon Brando. I would have been shocked if he'd won but for a minute there, a glorious second, it was possible.) I am also a big old softie for David Niven's particular brand of repression to the point of volcanic rupture, but he is one of many hotties who does not look good without moving and speaking so I figured he would be going.

So much beef—hey! hey you. I ran a poll asking if we are horny for dancers. Yes, was the resounding poll response. Where, then, did all the fucking dancers go? This round we lost Donald O'Connor, Fred Astaire, Harold Nicholas; Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby all sneak into this category as well, by token of having been in the kind of big MGM bang-a-pan-and-put-on-a-show beloved bedlams we all watch at Christmastime. Round 2 voters HATED musical matchups. Except for one.

The one—SOUND OF MUSIC, the voters said, WE LOVE SOUND OF MUSIC. we will KILL the man responsible for salad dressing because of the SOUND OF MUSIC. every other dance man can die but THIS man dances a FOLK DANCE with JULIE ANDREWS in a GARDEN. I did not go into this poll with strong opinions about Christopher Plummer or Paul Newman but my god did I leave having heard all of them.

Surprises—James Edwards/Anthony Perkins matchup was a nail biter! Conrad vs Oscar kept me up at nights. Surprised to see Basil Rathbone survive against Sabu Dastagir—both very fetching, but Sabu had some top-tier propaganda. Cesar Romero put up a surprisingly stiff fight against Cary Grant (an omen for things to come).

Oh horrors—horror heroes surprisingly fell all over the place. I was sure either Bela Lugosi or Turhan Bey would sweep their three-way matchup, but Michael Redgrave of all people carried through; Boris Karloff went down against Johnny Weismuller (while holding hands with fellow fallen hottie Fred Astaire), but at least we got his guacamole recipe before he went. Delighted to see that the Venn diagram of the coalitions who support horror hero Vincent Price and funny lil guy Donald O'Connor is a circle.

Secret faves pt 2—oh yeah, I fucking love Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor. RIP funny lil kings.

ROUND 3

For some reason this was the hardest one to make matchups for. Oh no, all the men are hot.

Secret faves—Michael Redgrave i love you SO much you're SUCH an idiot, how did you make it as far as round 3. I want you to sweep the whole thing but you should NOT be surviving this. I love you, here's a kiss, go home.

Surprises—Marlon Brando is gone! Errol Flynn is gone! Christopher Plummer exhausted himself beating the organic oreos man to death and goes out with a whimper. Beginning to actually see the roots of #mifunesweep as Tyrone Power, a hot man very different from Burt Lancaster, who was in turn very different from Tab Hunter, also gets swept under the wheels of the unbeatable toshirobus. Conrad Veidt finds that no amount of purring svelte eccentricity compares to the people who will fuck a young Lt. Columbo.

SHADOW BRACKET 2

Cannot believe it but Veidt loses this one too. Perkins sweeps and becomes Prince of the Shadow Realm!

ROUND 4

At this point I've set a formal bracket that I'm following.

Secret faves—this isn't secret anymore, but losing Jimmy Stewart hurt.

Surprises—The Gene Kelly/Jeremy Brett matchup was the diciest one all round, moving back and forth between the two by sometimes .01%. Far more surprising, however, was Cary Grant getting eliminated before the quarterfinals. Grant has never been my type, but he is famous for being THE type, so while the writing had been on the wall the whole tournament—how on earth did Michael Redgrave even get 36% in his matchup?!—seeing Grant go down was a SHOCKER. Other fallen hotties included Gregory Peck, James Dean, Harry Belafonte, and Sessue Hayakawa. Peter Falk finally met his match in Omar Sharif.

QUARTERFINALS

Secret faves—I don't know if it counts as a secret fave, tbh, as my horses in the race really went out with Stewart, but I do have a soft spot here worth mentioning. Here's my childhood dog, Keaton.

The resemblance is truly striking, and yes, he was short, fast, and not prone to smiling.

Surprises—I couldn't predict how any of these matchups would go down, but I was most interested in Keaton vs Sharif, as they are both SO hot in SUCH different ways.

SEMIFINALS:

This was such a good batch of semifinalist contestants. By this point I think we could all tell Mifune was unstoppable (though I thought Sharif might give him a run for his money), but I really didn't know which way Robeson vs Poitier would flip.

FINALS:

I wanted Sidney Poitier to pull a last-minute sweep out of nowhere, but alas, Toshiro is just THAT GOOD (maybe. I will admit that I find Toshiro's domination a little hard to believe, given the variety and hotness of all his competitors; the man is hot but all these men are hot). I'm still happy with how the tournament went.

FINAL MEDITATIONS:

Biggest shock of a dropout: the loss of Paul Newman

Biggest "you people have no taste": the loss of James Cagney

Biggest victory: Paul Robeson making it to the semifinals over often-assumed champion Gregory Peck

Biggest coalition who deserve justice: dancing men

Biggest ask character: vents anon (currently eating Laurence Olivier)

Biggest, uhh, anything: how many of you are here! I genuinely thought it would be me and 10 other people voting for the whole tournament. I'm thrilled it took off like this!

I think that's everything, but I'm happy to answer addl asks. And THANK YOU to everyone for your tags, rants, impassioned propaganda, beautiful pics, and love for the hot men! See you for the ladies!

[rays-of-fire-and-ice]

When the Souls Sleep and the World is Our Own

Prompts: ‘snow’ and ‘when I look at you…’

Rating: K/General

Setting: Decades before the main story.

Synopsis: Toshiro doesn’t understand why he keeps coming out to watch the silhouette of the Seireitei with her at sunrise, and Momo doesn't know why they can't meet during the daytime.

AN: A new year, a new fic! I discovered this challenge by @yearoftheotpevent , and figured I’d give it a go for the whole year.To start off, we’re heading back into Toshiro and Momo’s past, to the first days of their friendship.

For those read Horizons or You Are the Snow, you may recognise two of the scenes here as being flashbacks from both fics; I’ve edited them so it’s not 100% the same. For those who didn’t read either fic, you don’t have to had read them to understand what’s going on here.

Hope you all enjoy this one!

____________________________

The girl stands beneath a bare tree, clad in her multiple layers, her back to him, and staring at the silhouette of the Seiretei through the mist. A short distance in front of her on the right is the only alleyway that leads back to his house. Toshiro curses himself for not having turned off the main path sooner, but he hadn’t noticed the girl until he got this close.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he treads soundlessly to the other side of the road, into the cover of shadows. However, in his way all along the path’s side is snow, and the crunch of his footsteps will surely alert the girl of his presence. Perhaps she will be too caught up in her mind though, she hadn’t even noticed the ring of a chime from the house behind her or the budged when the wind grew stronger.

Needing to get home, he risks it, walking on the snow and keeping his head low.

Something makes him tilt his head a fraction back to her as he moves along. Now closer, he can tell she’s around his age. Only a few souls were ever out in this cold, and all of them had been adults. She’s an oddity in that regard, and in coming out at this time.

Only a few souls wonder the streets and alleyways of the first district at this time of year, usually keeping their heads low and wearing multiple layers against the wind. Most souls can’t withstand the cold at night to dawn, with most choosing to stay indoors around a fire until the sun rose away from the mountains.

It’s the third time he’s seen her from his usual perch on the tree, and not once had he spotted her in the Junrinan at any other hour – then again, the district is packed with souls, he’d be lucky sometimes if he sees the same shopkeeper behind the counter more than three times in the same month.

The wind catches on his scarf, causing the end to fly out of the shadows. He looks away from her and hurries along while trying to catch the end of his garment.

“Oh!”

Toshiro cringes at being caught. Despite his mind telling him to make a run for it, he’s stuck, as if the cold had frozen him on the spot. Without thinking, he looks back to the girl. Her wide eyes are brown, almost the same colour as her dark hair.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you,” she says, her words muffled slightly by the scarf covering her mouth. She searches for something, turning her head to look down the main road and then all the way up the side he stands on. Was she checking to see if he's alone?

"What’re you doing out?" she asks.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he retorts without thinking.

She blinks, taken aback by his answer. After a moment, she shrugs. “I got up early.”

“And decided to go outside?”

“Yeah, there isn’t much to do inside when everyone’s asleep.” She shifts her attention back to the silhouette of the Seireitei. "It's also the only time I get to see this clearly too, even with all the mist and snow in the way."

With her attention diverted, he can make a getaway. He goes to do just that, but she speaks up again.

"Have you ever been in there?" she asks.

The question is so preposterous he can't help but snark back, "As if they'd ever let any of us wonder in there."

"Oh, so it's just Shinigami that can go in then?"

He raises a brow. "Are you new around here?"

She nods. "I'm still learning everything." She tugs the scarf over her mouth down, showing her bright red cheeks and a wide smile. He's bewildered by the latter; aside from Granny, no one has ever smiled at him before.

"I'm Hinamori Momo by the way," she says. "I came to the Junrinan two weeks ago."

She waits for him to reciprocate, but he wonders further into the shadows. Perhaps she was only being friendly to him because she doesn't know who he is or because, more likely, she can't clearly make out his appearance from over there.

Her smile dims at his reaction. "Ah, sorry. I guess I just came out and spoke to you without warning. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I just thought it was he polite thing to do."

Her skittish way of speaking makes Toshiro wonder how old she is. She looks around his age, but he can't tell if she's older or younger.

He shakes his head. He's missing another chance to escape.

In most situations he leaves without a word, but with her awkward shifting from one foot to the other, he finds himself saying, “Forget about it.”

He keeps to the shadows, planning to dart out once he walks past her.

He only takes five steps when the light of the sunrise faintly pierces through the clouds, shining through the alleyways and making the snow dully glimmer. The girl’s gasp all but confirms she can see him more clearly now.

"Your hair is so white!"

Twisting back to her, Toshiro scowls and rubs a hand through his spikes without realising. "What about it?"

"Ah, sorry! It's just that I've never seen hair like yours before. It's like the snow."

It's about the nicest and strangest thing anyone has ever said about his appearance and he isn't sure how to take it. She doesn’t appear to be or sound disgusted or fearful of him. Furthermore, it seems no one hadn't told her about him. It would only be a matter of time before she finds out, but maybe, for even a day, for even just this hour, he could talk with another who didn't get spooked by his appearance or the apparent coldness he gives off.

He steps out on to the main road and into the light’s path. In half a grumble, he introduces himself. "Hitsugaya Toshiro."

She lists her head to one side, but then it hits her. "Oh, that's your name." Her smile returns anew. "It's nice to meet you."

With introductions out of the way, he isn't sure where to take this.

He looks to the Seireitei, feeling nothing towards it, but right now, the world only has the two of them looking at the horizon, and it makes him feel something that's as small, light and boundless as a flake of snow.

________________________________

Momo reaches out a hand from underneath the layers of clothes and blankets. The tips of her fingers and her knuckles are bright red, a stark contrast against the snow that falls into her palm. When the cold of it starts to permeate her skin, she blows it off, watching with amusement as the small flurry joins the rest on the ground.

It seems a lot of things here are just like they were in the World of the Living. She remembers snowy days with her family, and running through the forests with her friends to play games. A pang goes through her chest, and her smile falls. She misses them, and ponders if they miss her just as much.

At the crunching footsteps, she twists around to the boy walking up the main road. “Ah, you’re out again, Hitsugaya-san.”

He grunts and folds his arms. He stops at her side, but keeps a distance between them. It’s just like yesterday, but the clouds are thicker and the sun has yet to rise.

“Do you just come out here to look at that?” he asks, jerking his chin at the Seireitei’s silhouette. “You can’t even make out which building is which.”

“I can sort of make it out,” she says. “It’s like I said before, it’s the one time of the day I get a better view of it. During the day, there’s too many people around to get a good view from afar. I went up close to the gate at midday yesterday, but it’s not the same.”

“It’s just a bunch of buildings, what’s the big deal?”

He hadn’t talked much yesterday after he introduced himself, but she still doesn’t know what to make of bluntness. She had been surprised by it then, but today she’s defensive. “They’re not just buildings! There’s people in there too. They, um…”

He says nothing, but he does quip his head in her direction, and she takes it as a sign to continue. “They remind me of the Shinigami who sent me here. I’m hoping he’s in there somewhere, so I can thank him.”

“Why would you want to do that?” For the first time, despite his usual flat tone, he seems genuinely curious.

“He was really kind when I was scared. He told me I was going to a good place, and he was right. It’s really nice here, it’s like back at home and I…” She hesitates, wondering if she can share the questions she wants to ask the Shinigami. At the growing tightness in her chest, she shakes her head. “I mean, that's all! Don’t you want to do the same for the one that brought you here?”

Toshiro shifts his gaze away and kicks a hill of snow building up at his feet. “I wasn’t brought here.”

“Huh? But then how…?” Momo tilts her head, eyeing him from head to toe. Well, his appearance isn’t like most she’s seen here or in the World of the Living when she was alive, and she did see groups and families that looked very alike. She’d assumed it was because they had come together to the Soul Society, but her friends had told her souls who were families in the World of the Living are often separated, so then how come there were --?

“…Were you born here?” she asks.

He says nothing, but the deepening of his frown might just be the confirmation she needs. She would ask him more about it, but the topic seems to trouble him and she doesn’t want to upset him; she makes a mental note to ask one of her friends later.

“I didn't think that would be possible. There’s still so much I don’t know about this place,” she remarks. “It’s a little scary, but at least the people are nice.”

His frown deepens even more. “Not everyone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that not everyone here is friendly. It’d be silly to assume otherwise.”

“Well, so far I haven’t met any unfriendly people.”

He raises his head and meets her gaze. His eyes are a beautiful colour, but in the darkness she can’t make out their exact shade. Yesterday, when the light shined over them, they looked like a bright blue, like the daytime sky, and right now they're a dark blue-green.

She can’t read his expression, but his frown has softened. For some reason, it makes her want to reassure him, so she offers a smile. “It’s been nice to meet everyone and get to know them, including you.”

Ten minutes later, as Momo heads back home, she grins at the memory of his surprised face; it's the most he's emoted yet.

____________________________

“Good morning, Shiro-chan.”

Toshiro stops dead in his tracks. Had he heard right. “What did you call me?”

Momo’s smile turns nervous. “Well, seeing as we know each other better now, I thought ‘Shiro-chan’ would be a good nickname to call you by.”

He lets out an indignant sound, something stuck between a grumble and a yelp. They’ve known each other for just over two weeks now, and of all things to call him, this is what she chose. “Where the heck did you get that name?”

“It’s part of your name, and well…” She raises a blanket covered hand to try and stifle a giggle. “You do have snowy hair.”

He’s stunned, both from annoyance – of all the nicknames she could have given him – and from confusion. She gave him a nickname, he's never had one before. It's something friends give each other, right?

His cheeks heat up and he folds his arms tight against his chest and stalks right past her and the tree. “Don’t call me that!”

His face grows hotter at her answering laugh. “Wait, come back! Come back, Shiro-chan! You can call me 'Hina-chan' if you like!”

"No!"

____________________________

The clouds are thicker today, even blocking out the sun as it rises from the mountain. The stripes of light that do peak through only brighten faraway sections of the Soul Society.

Momo doesn't notice, too caught up in watching Toshiro draw in the snow with his finger. She thinks it's from boredom, but she can't quite tell.

She has known him for just over three weeks, and it baffles her that he can walk around in only a scarf, haten, yukata, and woolen socks with waraji; there’s been a few times where he didn’t even wear the haten. And here she is wrapped up in not only a scarf, woolen robe, and haten, but in multiple blankets and shawls and wearing two layers of tabi with her waraji. She’s certain other souls would be the same if they were out at this time, especially the children and the elderly.

“Don’t you ever get cold?” she asks.

Toshiro regards her with a shrug, focused on the lines he draws. “No.”

“I don’t understand how.”

“I just don’t get that cold.”

“That’s so strange.”

He hunches over more. “Not as strange as you coming out here everyday to stare at a place you can’t go to.”

She huffs. “One day I will, you’ll see!”

She expects another retort, but she lists her head to the side when he instead becomes thoughtful, inclining his head from one side and then slower to the other. After a moment, he stops drawing. “If you really wanted to see it, you should climb up on a roof during the day time.”

“That’s dangerous though!”

“Most of the kids here know how to do that, you can learn from them.”

“Well, maybe you could teach me,” she murmurs.

“What did you say?” he asks, looking down at his drawings.

She thinks to dismiss it, but this is good a time as any for her to finally ask him.

“I was wondering.” She waits, and when lifts his head over his shoulder, she continues. “When the sun’s up, could we meet up one day?”

His frown deepens at her request, but he stands and stares at the ground. His hesitation makes her tense up in the shoulders. Did he not feel comfortable with the idea? Did he not see her as a friend or being close enough to meet up during the day?

“I-It’s okay if you don’t want to,” she attempts to reassure. “It’s just, um…I think it’d be nice to see each other in the daylight is all.” Her voice peters out towards the end, and she turns away from him to hide her disappointment.

“This district is huge,” he says. “Sooner or later, though, we’ll see each other.”

“Really?” she asks neutrally; she didn’t dare hope.

“It happens.”

In the awkward silence, she draws lines in the snow with her foot near his drawings. Her lines are thicker, but more elegant than his.

“Why would it be nice?”

The question was so quiet she wasn’t sure he asked it. However, judging from the way he looks at her, so uncertain, she considers her answer. Maybe he didn’t see her as a friend yet, for whatever reason. She wants that to change.

“It’s not as cold during the daytime, and it's always dark when we meet up. We also can’t really do much at this time of the day without waking everyone up.”

“Like what?”

“W-We could play games, or go in the forest to get firewood, or go to stalls, or even, um…I don’t know, a lot of things.”

She feels oddly exposed, as if she told him a secret she told no one else. She focuses on her swirling lines. Amusedly, while his drawing looked like some crooked bowl of oden, hers looks like the steam coming from the dish.

It’s almost a full minute later when he gives his answer. “I don't do stuff like that." Then, after pressing his lips together. "But maybe, one day.”

She doesn’t hide her excitement, and it’s not until Toshiro warns her that she’s being too loud that she calms down.

____________________________

Toshiro doesn’t understand why he keeps coming back to her. It’s been over a month since he met her, and every day before dawn, he wonders out to the tree she stands under. It’s almost like clockwork – just before sunrise, she stands under the tree and watches the silhouette of the Seireitei. There was only one time he didn’t find her there, and that was because she was running late – “Natsumi-chan woke up from a nightmare. I had to help her fall back asleep.” She’d told him a few days before about everyone she lives with, including a young girl named Natsumi.

She’d also told him about her friends and the things she’s learning about the Rukongai. She lives just off the main road, on the street just behind the houses and stalls that align it, with a group of teenagers and children. She likes peaches and hates plums, and her birthday is in June. Somehow, she’d managed to get him to her his as well. She’s never afraid to tell him anything about herself, even when unprompted.

It's strange; he’s never made an effort to remember details about others nor divulge any information about himself. And he shouldn’t, because sooner or later she’ll know who he is. If not that, then the end of winter will surely mark the end of whatever this is. As spring got nearer, more souls tended to wonder outside before the dawn.

As he walks up the road, sometimes he’s caught her playing with the snow, either cupping it in her hands to make a snowball, drawing lines in it with a stick, or jumping in the indents her feet made until she wound back at the tree.

Today, he finds her twirling. Arms stretched out and legs spinning her in circles all around the main road, dancing to no tune or sound. Her multiple layers rise and fly around her, creating rings of colour against the darkness. The falling snow twirls with her too, flying in all directions once it enters her orbit of flying layers and spinning limbs.

She’s already strange enough, but this is definitely the most outlandish thing he’s seen her do. As he nears, he asks, “What’re you doing?”

He catches her off guard, her feet tripping over themselves and her arms going wide to balance herself. Once she’s sure she’s steady, she giggles. “I was dancing.”

“Why the heck would you do that in this weather? You could slip.” He’s embarrassed at how much he sounds like Granny when she lectures him about climbing up to the roof of their house or running on wet floorboards.

“Ah, it’s all right. If I fall, the snow will catch me.” And she starts twirling again, slower this time. “I was doing this with my friends yesterday. Come on, it’s fun!”

He only folds arms and snorts. “As if I’d do something so dumb.”

“It’s not dumb!” she chortles. “You’re such a grump, Shiro-chan!”

“Don’t call me that!”

She dances around him, feet skipping and jumping, sending clumps and flurries of snow in all directions. Her laughter stutters when she accidentally flicks some snow at him.

He kicks a heap at her in response. “Cut it out, Hinamori!”

Before he knows it, she’s bending over and throwing snow at him, and he’s doing the same and still telling her to knock it off.

The world is silent save for their snow fight and whistling of the wing. The gust muffles her laughter and his yelling, and separates the clouds to revel the start of the sunrise. Snow glitters on both of them from head to toe.

They come to a stop a minute later, panting for breath. Momo’s grin is so wide it must be hurting her cheeks, and he realises he’d stopped fighting his smile long ago. He tries to reign in his expression once he realises, and it takes more effort than usual.

Momo sits down and then flops back into the snow, sending up a plume of white into the air. He fans it away when he comes to stand over her.

“How you never catch a cold is beyond me," he remarks.

“I don’t get sick easily,” she says with a shrug. “I could say the same for you too! You only wear two layers.”

He brushes off the snow on his shoulders, arms, and chest. “I told you, I don’t get cold easily.”

 She lets out a weak chuckle and pats the space next to her. Despite himself, Toshiro plops down next to her. Her grin turns into a soft smile, a ‘thank you’ of sorts.  He hikes the scarf up higher when a sudden and uncomfortable heat rushes up his neck and blooms across his cheeks.

She turns her gaze back to the falling snow. “When you spin around, it’s like you’re on another world. But even just lying down, it’s like we’re part of the sky. Like the stars are falling on us.”

She’s full of fanciful ideas. However, he can’t find a retort or a snarky comment this time; something about her wonderment makes him stop. There’s that feeling again, like the first time they met, where he’s lighter and freer than a flake of snow.

He lifts his head upward. Snow floats down on to his face, and it reminds him of a dream he had once. In it he stared up at a pitch-black sky as the snow fell all around him. He knew he was looking for something, but upon waking, he forgot what it was.

After a minute, it’s like the sky has expanded and enveloped them. It’s grey with clouds, but the light of the sunrise douses the edges of them and the falling snow in yellows and pinks and oranges. It’s a world of its own, one that only they know about.

He hadn’t even realised he’d lain back until he decides to get up. He looks over and Momo is beaming at him, as if to say ‘I told you so.’

____________________________

Toshiro bounds from the front door and jogs down the street. After tucking away the coin bag into his sleeve, he mentally goes over the vegetables Granny told him to get. The stalls just off the main street shouldn’t have too many people milling about at this time of the afternoon, he’ll just have to grit his teeth and bare the stares and attitudes of the souls there.

He runs down the gap between two homes, narrowly dodging a hung up blanket in his way, and comes out on to the next street. He starts for the end of the street stops short at a group of children up ahead. They gather in front of one of the homes, laughing at something and most have their backs turned to him. All except three, and one of them is Momo. She looks different in the daylight, her hair and eyes a lighter shade and her skin paler than he assumed.

She notices him, her smile dropping into a surprised ‘o’ before returning brighter than before. She waves at him. “Hitsugaya-kun!”

She starts to go to him, but one of her friends speaks up while the other grabs her arm. “Wait, Momo-san.”

She frowns at them. “What is it?”

Eyeing Toshiro warily, the friend holding her tries to tug her back. “We need to tell you about something, over here.”

He hadn’t expected his heart to sink. He knew this day would come eventually; his days talking with her were always a fleeting thing. Did he have his hopes up that they could remain friends? Since when? He bites on the inside of his cheek, resisting the urge to yell when she gives him a bewildered look.

He doesn’t stay to watch after she’s moved away by the group, pivoting sharply on the ball of his foot, and sprinting away. He thinks he hears her call out to him, but he doesn’t want to know and doesn’t look back.

‘You need to be wary of him’ they’ll tell her. ‘He’s as cold as ice.’

‘If you look him in the eye for too long, he’ll freeze you!’

‘Even the grown-ups are scared of him.’

‘He never has anything nice to say.’

‘He’s not like anyone else, he’s different.’

‘Your need to stay away from him.’

‘He’s a freak.’

He almost collides with the front door of his home. He doubles over, resting his hands on his shaky knees as he tries to catch his breath. Granny opens the door, brow pinched in concern. “Toshiro-kun?”

His heart aches as she frets over him, asking why he’s so out of breath and if he was hurt. He shakes his head at the latter, and she leads him inside. He almost collapses into her, wanting nothing more than for her to hug him close, but he needs to be tougher than this. He should’ve known better, and now he’s paying the price.

“I’m sorry,” he rasps. “I didn’t get the vegetables. I’ll go out later, it’s still too cold.”

_______________________________________________

It’s the third day Toshiro hasn’t come. Momo scans the street for any sign of him – a tuff of white hair, a crunching step in the snow, or his scarf flapping in the wind.

She’d look for him this afternoon, but found him nowhere. She even in the alleyway he always goes down after they part ways and the street it leads out on to but found no trace of him.

She thought to leave him be, but she can’t forget how he looked that day she saw him in the daylight for the first time. His hair was even brighter than she thought, and his eyes are a shade of blue-green she has no name for. He’d bowed his head, but the way he just raced off told her he’d been hurt. Like he knew what was coming, knew what her friends would say about him.

And with what they’d said, it’s no wonder.

‘Is it because of his hair? I always thought it looked like snow.’

‘But that’s silly, I’ve looked him in the eye and I never froze.’

‘Why are the adults scared of him? He’s never hurt any them, has he?’

‘That not a nice thing to say! So what if he is different?’

‘But he’s my friend.’

They shook their heads when she said the latter, telling her that she’d be better off not thinking of him that way. She hadn’t talked to any of them for a whole day, so incensed by what they’d said about Toshiro.

But then she’d remembered a lesson from her mother: sometimes people are afraid of what they do not know about. Her friends didn’t seem to have truly spoken with Toshiro, avoiding him simply because of rumors spread about him. Maybe if they can get to know Toshiro as well as she does, they would change their minds about him.

The sun rises over the mountains, and with few clouds in the way, it’s light cast over the Soul Society and the sky. With a sigh, she wonders back down the road to her house. He’s not coming.

The Jurinan is vast, but there is only ever the two them out at this time and no one to stop them. Had even one friend in this whole district? She can’t imagine him living alone, it’s too cruel a thought, especially since everyone seems so happy here.

She halts in front of the alleyway he usually pops out from. He always came to her, so maybe it’s about time she goes to him.

She ventures in, but stops at an intersection. To her left is a dead end, to her right is an alleyway of stalls and shops, and in front is the passage to a street. For no real reason, she takes the right. Unlit lanterns and roof ornaments sway and shiver in the wind, with first and snow built up in the windowsills and over the entrances. It’s eerie to see the shops so empty and lifeless. Many crammed these streets during the day, most happy and going about their business without a concern in the world. She’s only ever seen him in the daytime once, and now she understands why he isn’t amongst the many who gather in the daytime. She can’t help but feel indignation at the thought, clenching a fist at her side.

Eventually, she ends up near the edge of the woods, behind the homes that line the street he’s meant to live on. She’s only ventured in there a few times with friends for running games or to find food. She wonders up to the left, and when there’s no sign of him, turns around and starts down to the end of the right.

She's walking in the direction of the sun, causing her to squint and raise a hand to block out light coming from over the mountains.

It’s a minute later when she hears crunching footsteps. His silhouette comes out from the forest. His head is bowed, but he turns to her, about to run at her.

“Shiro-chan!”

He freezes, widened eyes lifting to her. He looks like a startled animal, about to be caught by a hunter.

“Sorry,” she says, raising her hands from underneath all her layers and taking tentative steps to him. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Coming out of his shock, his brows furrow deeply and walks briskly past her, scarf raised over his mouth and arms tucked into the opposite sleeves

“Please, wait!” she yells, jogging to catch up tot him. “I just want to talk to you!”

“Keep your voice down!” he yells back.

“I could say the same for you!”

“Just leave me alone!”

“No!”

Closer to him now, his voice comes out strained. “Why?”

“Because I know why you’re running away right now.”

“I’m not running away, I’m going home.”

“But you are! You haven’t been coming to our usual spot. We haven’t seen each other in a while.”

“I got sick and tired staring at that dumb place.”

“It’s not dumb! And I know that’s not why.”

She reaches for his sleeve, but think better of it. It doesn’t go unnoticed though, because he spins around and away from her, stumbling to come to a stop with backward steps. His breath fogs in the air, his brows shake to stay in their place, and his gaze is tremulous. “You know now, right?”

Somehow her heart breaks that little bit more for him. He’s such a lonely boy. “Shiro-chan, I don’t-”

“Don’t call me that!” It’s first time he’s yelled with anger, she flinches at his fury. “Why do you keep calling me that stupid nickname?!” She can almost sense another question, something like ‘You think I like to be reminded that I’m different?’

Without thinking, she blurts out, “Because you are the snow.”

What anger he’d built up drains from him, leaving him only bewildered. “Huh?”

Realising her mistake, Momo nearly smacks a hand over her mouth as her cheeks get warmer. “Well, more accurately, you’re like the snow.”

In the pause, he blinks and tilts his head to the side. She’d find his bafflement funny if it were any other situation.

“Is that meant to be an insult?” he spits out.

“Wha?!” She waves her hands and hakes her head. “No, of course not!”

“Then don’t say something so dumb.”

“It’s not dumb! I meant that you’re, uh…it’s hard to explain, but…” Feeling sheepish, she swishes from left to right, trying to think of the right words to say. “Snow is cold, but it’s also soft. It can be fun to watch or walk through or have snowball fights with it. If you melt it, it becomes water, which we need.”

He looks at her as if she’s lost her mind. She wants to give an indignant lecture, but more than that, she needs to explain herself. If only she were a grown up, they always know how to explain things.

She remembers her parents then, and what they told her that one time the snowfall had trapped all of them inside. “And the snow can bring people together under the same roof, and then when it melts, it becomes spring, and the flowers come back. I think some people get too caught up in how cold it is, when really there’s other qualities it has…It’s not that bad.”

Again he blinks, but this time it’s in contemplation. She fears trying to explain herself further will only confuse him more, but the silence stretches on, and she wonders if she has blown any chance of being his friend again.

“You must be getting a cold,” he eventually says. “Or hypothermia.”

“Hypo-what?”

“Nevermind.” He sighs and resumes walking. “My house is nearby, you can warm up there.”

She almost freezes at his offer. He’s almost shy now, tucking his face even lower into his scarf, waiting for her to respond. Despite his frown, he eyes her with a softened gaze as they walk down between two houses. She’d kept her hands outside of the layers this whole time, and the tips of her fingers are blue and shivering.

For some reason, it makes her heart ache. “Thank you. I think I will.”

Any other time she would have been excited to finally see where he lives -- especially now that it seems they've made up -- but a somberness has settled into her. She smiles at him, but it’s not a happy one. Perhaps everything she had said had gone over his head, or maybe, he had been so alone and treated with such contempt that he never dares to even entertain the idea that his appearance could be something other than an oddity, an abnormality even.

At some point he leads ahead, and she’s staring at his back. Up until now he’s held himself as if nothing was on his mind, as if he were like any other resident. Now there’s a slight hunched quality to his shoulders and stride. Or perhaps it’s always been there and she has only just noticed it.

She’s always hated seeing others left out, especially for reasons as silly as having different appearances t most other people. People can’t help how they look, right? Maybe it’s why she feels as strong as she does about him and wanting others to accept him. It’s more though, she realises. She wants to be his friend, because he’s interesting to her.

As they come out on the street she had searched two days ago for his house, she quickly comes to his side. “Say, Shi...I mean, Hitsugaya-chan?”

“What?” he grumbles.

“What games do you like to play?”

“Huh?”

“Today, at lunch, do you want to play something together?”

He doesn’t answer right away, dismissing her question with a grunt and walking faster to his house. On his porch, the lone spinning top next to the front door makes her smile. “How about spinning tops?”

“What?"

“For the game we could play.” She picks up the toy, wincing as she encloses her freezing finger around it, then hands it to him. “You don’t normally just have one spinning top, right? I have a set back at my house.”

For a moment his frown vanishes, and he looks so much younger. If the others could see him as he is now, would they take back what they said? Would they think better of him? Would they see him as he truly is?

They saw him as ice, jagged and cold and dangerous. She can't understand how that's the case, because when she looks at him, all she can see is snow. Cold, yes, but soft and changeable.

His gaze darts between his spinning top and her. Then, he reigns himself in, brows furrowing once more as he takes the toy from her. “Sure."

[twilightknight17]

P5T Story Finale - Part 1

I'm just starting off with the assumption that this will have to be 2 parts, to fit all the pictures I took. XD

So, where we left off, I was doing pretty good.

We'd beaten Metal Marie, and Lavenza had some challenges for us to unlock our final skills. I was kind of hyped, because honestly, it seemed like a good opportunity to get everyone's ultimate personas back. And then Erina could just have whatever.

It was not second awakenings, despite the way they talked about it sounding very second-awakening-ish. Instead, we get a maximum power skill for each Thief's specific element. And, sorry everyone, but Joker's is the coolest.

I also think that it's worth mentioning that when you die, Lavenza quotes Paradise Lost at you.

She also quotes it at the very start of the game, so she's very well-read. Probably Margaret and Theodore's influence; I can't see Elizabeth sitting through a book like that. XDDD

Anyway, Lavenza's challenges were some very elaborate puzzle levels and endurance missions with gimmicks, but nothing that was completely unreasonable. The one where you had to kill everything in one turn by using one-mores and platforms to get Joker to the top of the level to trigger the widest-possible AOA range was awesome. I felt smart when I finished them, which was the important part.

And my reward, other than skills, was......

You have to be level 96 to fuse Satanael, tho, so like... holy fuck, Atlus. Booooooo. And he's got like seven components, which I'm pretty sure he did in P5, but you couldn't fuse him til NG+, so you at least would have had most of them by then. This is just taunting me. Plus, it's not nearly as easy to get money in this. You have to replay missions, and later missions give more money but also take longer, so it seems like it'll be a little tedious to complete the compendium.

ANYWAY.

Metal Yoshiki and Metal Shadow Toshiro went down next, and I'm pretty sure it confirmed that it wasn't actually Toshiro's shadow, just a piece of Salmael masquerading as it. I wasn't... super impressed with these fights? They were basically the same as the first go round, just with more health, more damage, and slightly different arenas. Metal Shadow Toshiro skipped his first round and went right to Giant Scary Eri, so... Yeah. They were fine, I guess.

I did notice something a little funny, though. The final Kingdom is "The Path to God" in the replay menu, and there are six missions (not counting the bosses), each with a letter appended to them.

All six in order spells "A S Y L U M".

If Salmael rules this Kingdom, is he the crazy one, then? :P

So, we are off to the final boss. My goblin kids are ready to beat the shit out of their third god in like... four months? Wow.

Slap him so hard he drops his head, Futaba!

I finally realized what this thing's appearance reminds me of. Some weird fusion of Yald, and the Queen from Deltarune.

He has the SMUGGEST VOICE of any god so far and it just makes me want to hit him harder. Maybe I should have done some grinding for Satanael after all.

He just wants to ~save humanity~, and I'd just like to mention how much I love my wife.

Salmael is totally cool with our disagreement, obviously.

Us? All by ourselves? You think so highly of us~

Salmael says that his actions are the consensus of humanity, so we should just give in. The game gives you an option here between "Our wills are firm" and "Send us back to the real world." Which, if you remember, he offered to send us all home without our powers or memories, so... put a pin in that. We'll be back. In THIS timeline, we tell God to fuck off, as is our wont.

I feel justified in writing Ryuji calling Yaldabaoth "Yald" in an actual fic, now. XD

Seriously, Atlus, one line of dialogue. "We've already beat up a 'god' who thought he knew what was best for us." Call Maruki on his BS.

Anyway, as always, these gods who want peace and happiness and order are willing to murder us. Ooohhhh nooo, I don't waaaaant to use force, you just leave me no chooooooiiiiiice~ Blarg. XD

The battlefield is wild, though. I'm always down for a good giant clock.

The five platforms rotate either forward or back based on a skill that warns you in advance. Platforms that go past the end positions sink into the green, and more arise on the other side to replace them.

So, we wallop the shit out of god while avoiding being tossed into a green abyss. I only lost Toshiro during this stage of the fight, so I still had my three primary fighters and three baton passes.

Salmael, upon being knocked down in round 1, throws a temper tantrum, and... well, I guess calling it "going one-winged-angel" isn't appropriate here. He's still got all his wings, just gets more raggedy and dirty.

But the important part is that he loses the mask and his face is FUCKED UP

He gets two new attacks for this round. The first one is a very Dark Hour-esque clock which leaves numbers on some of the platforms. That's how many people need to be standing on that particular platform to avoid triggering an attack that paralyzes you on your next turn.

Overall, challenging! Especially because the numbers don't rotate with the platforms, so if he does both skills at the same time, you've gotta make sure you're not gonna rotate away from the number you need. (Learned that the hard way.)

The second one is some kind of giant antenna that spawns in the middle of the arena, and you have like... three turns to AOA it before he does some horrible targeted missile barrage. I had the worst time with that. That's how I lost all three of my remaining squad in one turn, because I couldn't get the downed enemy to line up right to allow the AOA.

So we're down Ann, Morgana, and Akira. Welcome to the fight, Haru, Yusuke, and Ryuji!

Salmael's second form has about twice as much health as his first form, which can be mitigated by AOA-ing the antenna, because Futaba can then turn the missiles on him. I only managed that once. X'D But the game REALLY smacked me when it did the clock attack and the arena rotation on the same turn, and the clock was four platforms, each with a 1 on it. I didn't have Toshiro anymore. I couldn't put one person on each platform. So everyone got paralyzed, and the rotation was poised to dump both Haru and Yusuke into the abyss with no way to move them.

It was going to be up to Ryuji to win this fight alone.

...or, it would have been, but as I watched Yusuke sink into the green depths, I realized that... the platform just popped back up on the other side. Yusuke was fine. Didn't even do any damage. X'D I spent the whole fight thinking that if I got sucked down with a platform, that person would just die. But no.

In the end, Haru dealt the final blow, and Salmael took that really well. He just straight up starts taking a swing at us and throwing gears. So I guess we DID slap him so hard he dropped his head!

My baby boy gets to say more than one line of dialogue in this game!

This is the smile of a savior, everyone.

Honestly this last AOA cutscene is wild. I like it better than Scramble's, I think? I need to watch it again, but it's really well done. Halfway through, Erina gets squashed by a whole ton of gears and ends up... I'm assuming drifting in the Sea of Souls, and Toshiro calls her back so she can take her Ernesto form and blast the hell out of Salmael. And then she turns back into Erina and she and Akira slam a flag through Salmael's face. :3

Yeah, yeah. Same as every other monster.

Salmael takes defeat well, of course. By exploding.

And Toshiro catches a brief glimpse of the overwhelming existential dread that knowing about meta-space can cause: namely that humanity is constantly accidentally almost destroying itself.

I like to think that he gets a phone call from the Shadow Ops at some point. XDDDD

Anyway, with Salmael dead, his primary Kingdom is collapsing, so it's time to get the hell out of here. And with this, I have hit the image limit, so... Off we go. Part 2 is next!

[batbeato]

persona 5 tactica update: at the final dungeon (I'd presume) with angel boi.

i hate it here.

first of all, the design of the final dungeon is... interesting. I understand what they're going for - the characters even explicitly said it: that it's meant to be boring and ugly and same-y because that's what stagnancy is like - but it doesn't change that it... is boring and ugly and same-y in a very unappealing way.

in the same way, I understand what they're going for with the boss gauntlet, but I also... dislike it. I don't think just reskinning the bosses to be silver like this is goddamn inverse-xibalba (...I'm so sorry for comparing this place to xibalba persona 2 I love you xibalba and your metal recreations of figures of trauma) is that interesting. I would have really liked it if they made new (can still be monochrome/silver!) twisted/distorted designs of the previous bosses, or at least modified the designs slightly more, to really hammer home that these are just recreations Salmael made without the glimmer-glammer-oomph-whatever of Toshiro's memories.

in addition. having Toshiro join the party was really... interesting. the reveal that Elle was actually his Persona was very ??? and even the game talks about how it's such a special unique case. so. don't think I even need to go there. they really put themselves in a corner idk. it also doesn't make a ton of sense to me that you can still use Elle as an individual unit but also have Toshiro in the party using her as a Persona, but. okay.

Toshiro had a mask for .5 seconds that he ripped off during his Persona awakening and then just never got a Phantom Thief outfit of any kind. anything to spice his design up. even just a goddamn PHANTOM THIEF CODENAME. NOPE!! It honestly feels like an act of laziness or oversight, since this is one of the things the game didn't even bother to explain! unlike how kindly it tried to explain Elle and the Kingdoms.

the reveal, btw, that the Kingdoms were just... made by Salmael to break Toshiro's spirit is something. as is that Salmael is THIS obsessed with one man. even the man that's going to be prime minister. seriously. why not bother some billionaire with tons of financial power who could easily end world hu - nvm I'm giving it too much credit. gotta dial it back. anyway.

I don't mind Salmael as a concept. at this point we are all used to the obligatory world-ending god final boss in Persona. it's a requirement for any given Persona game. I do mind how Salmael gets to be responsible for Everything and how his existence gets to wave away any more interesting worldbuilding about Kingdoms. I was really hoping we'd get something about, idk, remnants of Shido's faction doing experiments on Shido's successor or some shit. nope. To be fair maybe I will get that. I haven't fully cleared the game yet. But thus far, nope.

Another thing that interests me is just how much... better a fit for this game's protagonist/focus Eri seems to be. she wants to be a journalist - super fitting for the PTs. she has a strong sense of justice. she got screwed over in the past and framed for a crime she didn't commit (like Joker!). she's so cool. why is Elle just here to be Toshiro's pet Eri. why is Toshiro the main guy and not her cute traumatized boyfriend she has to save.

Oh, and another thing! So many interesting things this game gives me to think about! Why is Toshiro's Persona of the opposite gender to him...? I think that this is like, a single case of this occurring, or else just generally rare since I don't remember any instances (outside the wildcard protags taking on female Personas). Personally I think it's funny to imagine that Toshiro is trans or some flavor of genderqueer and hasn't realized it yet. I know it's probably meant to be some romantic BS but in my dreams... Idk maybe Toshiro's gay and Toshiro's 'attraction' to Elle/Eri is because Toshiro wants to BE her. In my dreams.

Since I've been working my way backwards, it seems: Toshiro's Shadow. Oh, Toshiro's Shadow. He doesn't make any sense. He doesn't have any internal logic. He expresses "ohhhh we got Eri hurt we're so baddddd" and then five seconds later "ohhh Eri is so badddd with her rebellious ideaalssss". The game is like "oh yeah this is Toshiro's Shadow totes for reals" and I'm sitting here going "no this is clearly some shit evil god-angel bitch made up to fuck with Toshiro. this is nothing like anything Toshiro has ever said ever". It sucks. Reminds me of Persona 4, in a bad way.

Usually I try to put some positives in these posts to not be too negative towards the game. It's a little difficult this time since I am now FORCED to have Toshiro in my party even if I would rather leave his ass to rot. I dislike having him there and would very much like to continue my fun routine of rotating party members around to get to play with everyone. He disrupts this by never going tf away. Game didn't even force me to use ELLE most of the time and yet now I always have to use Toshiro. Man...

Well. I did finally change the game's difficulty from Normal to Hard. I thought I wasn't that good at strategy games, so it might just be that the game's difficulty curve isn't quite right. That, or I'm actually good at the game. Not sure which. Anyway the seratonin hit of making giant-ass All Out Attack triangles to hit ten million enemies with at once? Addictive. Beautiful. Best part of this game.

[doudecim]

I want to say that 99% of the fics here are on FF.net for I have only recently discovered the wonders of AO3, and I still didn’t dig deep in there to find all the HitsuKarin goodies.

That being said, I will put the list under the cut because this will be one very long post. So, I hope you all enjoy it!

one-shots

A Constant Fascination, by back-in-a-bit. — 'Colour me blood red passionately.' Hitsugaya makes it his personal mission to get Karin to blush. Pity it's easier said than done. In fact, it might just take him a lifetime. [rated T]

A Fall in the Fall, by MeteorLeopard. — This was ridiculous! There she was, just looking at the fish, and the next thing she knows, she's up in a tree being held against her will! And it's all his fault! [rated T]

a little suffering is good for the soul, by the milliner’s rook. —  Future fic. If there are stupider ways to get courted, Karin can't think of them. [rated K+]

A Woman Scorned, by Glowing Blue. — The twisted fairy tale of Karin finding her own invite to the ball, though she's hardly looking for a Prince Charming. [rated T]

but leave the soul alone, by the milliner’s rook. — AU. Death, it's catching. Or: the one where Toushirou and Karin share night shifts at the hospital. And coffee. Terrible, terrible coffee. [rated K+]

Collection, by ichilover3. — A drabble/oneshot dump. Shenanigans, silliness, and sexy-times abound. Also alliteration, apparently. [rated M]

crawl into your shadow, by the milliner’s rook. — AU. There's a witch in this sleepy little village now that goes by the name of Karin, but nothing has changed since she's arrived. Not really. [rated T]

Delirous, by carved in the sand. — Matsumoto finds her captain to be a lovestruck teenage boy. [rated T]

duckling theory, by the milliner’s rook. — The first thing Karin notices is watermelon. Looking back, maybe it should have been startling green eyes. [rated K]

For You, by Glowing Blue. — Death had never been the paradise everyone wished it to be. But then they found each other. [rated T, two-shot.]

frostbitten, by the milliner’s rook. — Set during the time skip. The winter they meet is unkind with snow. [rated K+]

Frozen Moments, by CrazyAce'n'PokerFace. — 101 drabbles/one-shots that give a glimpse into Toushirou and Karin's life together. A love story told in snapshots. [rated K+]

funny valentine, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — I'll be yours if you'll be mine. [rated K+]

humour me, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — True love's kiss. That ought to do it. [rated K+]

i’m high on believing, by the milliner's rook. — For the record, he prefers his plain black shoes to her fancy red sneakers. [rated K+]

ice breaker, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — AU. There are better ways to get found out than making out in a closet and tumbling onto the ground. [rated T]

if my heart was a compass you’d be north, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — Future fic. Give me a reason to believe. [rated K+]

In Every Season, by Adobo-chan. — A collection of HitsuKarin oneshots. [rated T]

In the Dark, by ichilover3. — It really wasn't anyone else's business. She should be allowed to fornicate with midgets if she wanted to. [rated T]

innocent guilt, by SebonzaMitsuki27. —  AU. Oh, I know! You're a tramp with wings! [rated K+]

Juxtaposition, by Lady Azar de Tameran. — Something within Hitsugaya Toushirou thinks that he may have met his match. [rated T]

keep me in your pocket, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — Set during the timeskip. Don't stay out of touch, okay? [rated K+]

Kuchiki Rukia, the Glorified Courier, by MeteorLeopard. — Delivering super-top-secret messages between dimensions is tough work; believe me, I know. If it weren't such a rewarding experience I'd downright refuse to play the messenger. Honestly. [rated K+]

liliputians, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — Future fic. It's alright, kid. I'm short too. [rated K+]

Lovely Complex, by Unknown lazy ass. — She slyly grinned, “Wow, you really are head over heels for me, aren’t you Toushirou?” [rated K+]

Momo knows Best, by MeteorLeopard. — Sometimes having a meddling older sister... sucks. [rated T]

of halos and wings, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — Future fic. He had betrayed Hinamori with nothing but his heart. [rated T]

Old Haunts, by the milliner's rook. — Future fic. You were just gone, Toushirou, what was I to think? I thought—I thought you'd come back, and you did, twenty years too late. [rated T]

Peeping Tom, by Glowing Blue. — The love story of Hitsugaya and Karin, as seen from open windows and heard through thin walls. "Hisagi's eyes had a tendency to stray." AU. [rated T]

phantasmagoria, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — Flickering through black and white, they find their perfect shade of grey. [rated K+, two-shot.]

put down your sword and crown, by the milliner's rook. — AU. When her old man dies to save Ichi-nii's life, everything changes. Days after the funeral, the word Quincy is spoken for the first time, and at five years old, Karin becomes defined by it. [rated K+]

Red, The Colour of Despair, by the milliner's rook. — It was strange how much difference one colour could make. [rated K+]

Revenants, by carved in the sand. — Hitsugaya ponders the ghosts that haunt the girl he still loves. [rated T]

Sports and Sex are Universal (but never the twain should meet), by back-in-a-bit. — Toushirou gives Karin a flat look. "I'm not high-fiving you over sex," he says. [rated M]

Subtle, by nublados. — Toshiro comments on the subtlety that is Karin Kurosaki. [rated K+]

The Art of Asking, by Felix02. — He should have known that her father wouldn't be able to keep a secret, especially from one of his daughters. [rated T]

The Art Of Getting By, by the milliner's rook. — AU. There's some difficulty between juggling flirting, killing Hollows and getting to class on time with the hottest guy in high school, but Karin's certain she'll get the hang of it eventually. [rated T]

The Staircase not Taken, by MeteorLeopard. — Perhaps it was a good thing that the stairs were destroyed, her brother acting demented and a violent fight going on without her just upstairs. After all, the visitor who happened to drop by was worth the wait. [rated T]

the winter sun smiled for things to come in spring, by the milliner's rook. — What is it with you! You're either too young or too old! What the hell! [rated T, two-shots.]

Urahara's Lawn Mowing Service, by MeteorLeopard. — Incorrect phone numbers are a messy business. Even messier though is the business that happens after said incorrect phone call. "Fine, but I bet your girlfriend didn't call back because your lawn needs to be mowed." [rated T]

velocity, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — Aim for the goal, and don't look back, no matter what. [rated T]

where angels fear to tread, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — They belong in hell. [rated K]

You Taste Like Birthday, You Look Like New Year, by the milliner's rook. — Future fic. She likes his hands, Toushirou notices. Loves them, in fact. [rated M]

complete

lune, by SebonzaMitsuki27. — AU. Me and you and moonlight shivers. [[rated T] other main pairings are ByakuyaHisana, ShinjiHiyori and UlquiorraNel, so beware that HitsuKarin is not the only focus in this one.]

Waterlogged, Wind-chapped, and Sun-bleached. — They grow up together, and the slow progression of their relationship shapes their world. AU. [rated T]

Wendybird Chronicles, by the milliner's rook. — She wonders if they ever had a chance. If they might have missed it, somehow. [rated K+]

on going

Wrong Number, by Lunatasha. — Unknown (10:22): So! I just read all of the conversations I had last night while I was out drunk and thoroughly embarrassing myself and please let me apologise for bothering you (especially as I think you were working if you were in your office?) last night. I mean in hindsight I probably should have stopped messaging you as soon as it was clear you weren't who I was looking for, but drunk me apparently hates sober me so yeah, I'm sorry. That being said thank you again for helping me out even though I must have been bothering you, I appreciate it. [rated T]

Only in Dreams, by TullyBlue. — Brother, she had called him, but he spent the entire meal acting like she was a ghost. Eating with the twins, he can’t even imagine being that cold to his sisters. Yuzu’s laughter brightens his day and that admiring glint in Karin’s eye, that he only catches every once in a while, means the world to him. The so-called brother in his dreams makes Ichigo’s skin crawl. Everything else, though, he wants to see more of, to know more about, to understand. Old, wood floors, a spacious room, flowing black robes, and those swords... [[rated T] other main pairings are IchigoRukia, UryuuChad, GanjuHanatarou, so beware that HitsuKarin is not the only focus in this one.]

abandoned or on permanent hiatus, probably won’t ever post a new chapter again

Blizzard Blues, by the milliner's rook. — Future fic. I heard your brother had an eight pack, Captain Hitsugaya! That he was shredded! [rated T]

Catalyst, by Etiena. — With captain-level shinigami in her family, it is no surprise that Kurosaki Karin has potential. But it isn't family which triggers her change. Instead, a chance encounter with a young shinigami captain leads to startling revelations. [rated K+]

Go Against the Grain, by Adobo-chan. — Old law deems that only a son may become the Kurosaki House's next leader. Born from this ancient tradition, a tragic betrayal and her mother's sacrifice, Karin is brought up as Kurosaki Kazuto, the 29th head of the family. [rated T]

oh sinful rose, by the milliner's rook. — AU. Five years after the monarchy is overthrown, a noble finds a forgotten princess in chains. DISCONTINUED. [rated T]

Quandary, by Glowing Blue. — Funnily enough, meeting such a spirited single mother was actually part of his job description. AU. [rated T] (I love this one so much!)

Roommate For Sale, by SavageTrickster. — AU. There are many things in life that she didn't know, but the one thing Kurosaki Karin was certain of is that her overprotective brother is going to blow his top when he meets her new roommate.

[titaniumblender]

Happy HK secret Santa  @emmmmiru !!! I hope you don’t hate this lmao, I’ve discovered I really need prompts when writing christmas fics so I combined like several and I think it sort of worked???  Also plz excuse my ER/hospital knowledge it’s very outdated because my reference hasn’t worked in an ER for like years so I did my best lol. So, without further ado plz have Doctor Toshiro/Nurse Karin and mistletoe, for some reason I really just like RAN with the mistletoe thing!! 

Karin was twitchy. She’d been waiting in the Starbuck’s line for a solid fifteen minutes before her order was finally taken. Now here she was, stuck waiting another ten minutes for the actual drink to be made. There were four people in front of her too.

Today was her first day at her new hospital. She was finally escaping the shadow of her brilliant family at Karakura General Hospital, KGH. Both her father and brother were well known and highly sought-after doctors. Ichigo, a renown neurosurgeon and Ishhin, probably one of the best ER doctors around, training a number of great pupils in emergency medicine. Even her own twin sister was well known, Yuzu was one of few dietitians in Karakura and a good one at that.

Karin herself was a damn good nurse and she knew it, but she got rather fed up with being known exclusively as Kurosaki Junior. Yuzu didn’t seem to mind the nickname as much, but of course Karin wasn’t as nice as Yuzu.

So, here she was, a town away at a brand-new hospital starting her first shift on Christmas Eve, just her luck.

And now her need for Starbucks and caffeine was going to make her late.

“Venti gingerbread latte for Karin.” The barista finally called out and Karin practically sprinted to the counter.

Quickly grabbing a lid and pushing it onto the cup Karin briskly turned around ready to get to the hospital ASAP. Only to run smack dab into someone, immediately spilling her precious gingerbread latte all over this nice someone’s crisp white dress shirt.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” She asked before looking up at the very attractive man she had spilled her hot drink all over.

He was probably one of the most attractive men she had ever seen with white hair, piercing blue eyes and a very attractive face. An attractive face that was decidedly unimpressed with situation as his white shirt dripped latte. He brought a hand up to his face, pinched his nose and muttered, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“Wait, Toshiro?” Karin asked, his unimpressed scowl triggering a memory of that very same face but much younger lecturing her about proper hospital etiquette.

“Karin?”

“Yes! How are you? It’s been so long; dad really misses you.” It was really her who missed him, but he didn’t need to know that.

“I’m doing just fine Karin, but I think I’d be much better if we could have this discussion when I don’t have coffee all over me.”

“Ahh right! Let me get you a paper towel, I’ll be right back.”

And then she disappeared quickly, trying her best to calm her heart rate.

Toshiro Hitsugaya had been one of her father’s most promising medical interns and Isshin had loved him so much he became part of the family. Did a young nursing intern, happen to find him very attractive? Yes. Did that same intern also happen to develop a huge crush and sulk for weeks when he finally left to pursue his career at a different hospital? Also, yes. But she still had her dignity dammit!

The current twenty-five-year-old Karin was not the same as twenty-one-year-old lovesick Karin, she would not be caught pining over Toshiro Hitsugaya. She was better than that.

Grabbing a wad of napkins, Karin returned to Toshiro and resisted the urge to dab at his well-muscled chest with them. Instead, she handed them to him before seeing the time. “Toshiro, this was great, but I really have to go, I’m late to my first shift!”

Toshiro had no chance to respond before the dark-haired beauty was gone and he was left still sopping wet with latte. Classic Kurosaki.

Karin barely managed to make pre-shift, sliding into the nurse’s station just as the charge nurse started giving everyone the basic rundown of how the shift would work.

Karin knew the brief layout of the hospital and how it worked from her few training shifts, but she wasn’t sure she was entirely ready to be thrown into a Christmas Eve shift just yet. Unfortunately, another nurse had come down with a nasty flu and Karin was forced to cover for her. Since Karin had never worked a Christmas or Christmas Eve shift before she had absolutely no idea what to expect.

She really hoped Christmas Eve wouldn’t be as insane as it was on Gray’s Anatomy.

After pre-shift ended Karin approached the charge nurse to let her know of her newbie status. She was a kind older woman named Yuki and Karin knew immediately she’d like her.

“Oh, don’t worry too much dear. Christmas Eve usually isn’t that busy, this is probably a good first shift for you to learn how we work here. But just to be safe I’m going to assign you to beds 6-12, they’re usually not as hectic as the trauma room. The doctor on tonight is also one of our best. I’m sure you’ll have no problems but if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask him. He’s very thorough in his work so I’m sure he’d be more than happy to help you learn the layout here.”

As Yuki finished speaking Karin spotted a messy head of silvery-white hair walking towards them and she quickly realized exactly who her ER doctor would be tonight. Just her luck.

“And speaking of, there he is. Karin, this is Dr. Hitsugaya and he’ll be the doctor in charge of the emergency room tonight.”

She could have kicked herself; she really should have put the pieces together. What was the likelihood she’d run into Toshiro at the coffee shop next to the hospital before her night shift randomly? Very slim.

“Hello again Karin.” He said with a small smirk, and she couldn’t help but notice the new green dress shirt he was wearing underneath his white coat brought out those piercing eyes of his. He was really so unfair.

“Toshiro.”

His eyebrow twitched; an annoyed reaction Karin was thrilled to evoke.

“Karin how many times do I have to tell you it’s Dr. Hitsugaya.”

“Oh, you two have already met then?” Yuki interrupted innocently.

Yes, yes, they had. She had an embarrassing schoolgirl crush on him, thought their weird sexual tension might lead somewhere only for him to leave after his residency never to be seen again. She was only a little bitter. But it was FINE.

“Yes, we used to work together at another hospital.” He smoothly replied and Karin was thankful he didn’t bring up her family and exactly which hospital they’d worked at. She didn’t want to be known as Kurosaki Junior again and he seemed to understand.

“Well, I hope we have a good shift Toshiro.”

His eyebrow twitched again, and she couldn’t help but feel pride at how she could drive him so crazy in such a short amount of time.

As it turned out Karin did have a pretty good shift with only a few hiccups. Thankfully, nothing too insane happened and as Yuki promised beds 6 to 12 were pretty relaxed. The most notable patient was a man who had smashed his hand through a fish tank.

Karin was forced to carefully tweeze out the glass while one half of his family yelled at him across the bed about his recklessness. From what she could gather the two sides of the family were arguing about some family recipe and it had led to an all-out brawl.

She was a little chagrined when the other half of the family arrived twenty minutes later with his cousin who had third degree burns from cooking said family recipe.

Overall Christmas Eve wasn’t that bad. Karin had learned about the hospital staff more than anything. Mostly that they were a bit crazy. At first Karin hadn’t immediately noticed the mistletoe pretty much EVERYWHERE in the hospital but the more she paid attention the worse it got. Every doorway, archway, hallway, and windowsill were covered in the plant. There was even some hanging off the light fixtures. She privately thought it was a terrible fire hazard but whatever.

After hours of encountering, it at every corner of the hospital during her shift she caved and asked what it was about on her lunch break. Matsumoto, an impressive veteran ER nurse whose only goal in life seemed to be to drive Toshiro insane, was more than happy to let her in on the hospital gossip.

Only for Karin to find out it was all over some ridiculous wager. Apparently, there was a longstanding bet in the hospital about who could catch a certain white-haired doctor under the mistletoe first.

In four years running, not one had ever been able to kiss him. Doctors, nurses, and X-ray techs alike had all tried their hand but to no avail. Not a single soul had ever gotten near him.

Karin couldn’t help feeling a little pleased about this. So, what if she still harboured a little crush on the man and was smug no one had snagged him yet? Who could blame her, he was hot.

It was widely believed Toshiro was some sort of ninja in his spare time because he’d never been spotted near the mistletoe which was an impressive feat seeing as how it covered every possible surface.

“So why does everyone want to kiss him so bad? Other than the bet of course?”

“Karin have you seen that man, who wouldn’t want to kiss a face like that?”

“Fair point.” She was willing to admit he was indeed a very fine specimen.

“So, who are you betting on this year Matsumoto?”

“You.” And with that ominous answer, Matsumoto winked, grabbed her empty tray and left the cafeteria.

Karin could only gape at her back.

The rest of her shift was just as relaxed as the beginning and for that Karin was thankful. Her mind was now completely filled with Matsumoto’s last words. What was she supposed to do with that? Why would she have a chance of winning that bet with Toshiro. Did Matsumoto know something she didn’t? Sure, they’d shared some heated looks at her old hospital and yeah, people usually told them to get a room whenever they argued but that didn’t mean he was interested in her right? She definitely would have known if Toshiro Hitsugaya, star ER doctor had a crush on her. Or would she?

It was these thoughts that occupied her mind as she put on her street clothes and exited the hospital for the night on complete autopilot. There was no way she could have missed her first love liking her back. No way. Or at least she really hoped not.

And it was these very same thoughts that caused her to make her way down the main stairs in a daze. As she turned onto the empty sidewalk right outside the hospital, she was so engrossed in her thoughts that she failed to notice the black ice covering the previously snowy sidewalk. She promptly slipped and fell onto the concrete and after that she really didn’t think of much at all.

Woozily looking up, Karin heard him muttering to himself, before her blurry vision became clear.

“Injured slipping on the sidewalk, trauma to the head, likely has a concussion.”

And then he looked up from her chart and finally noticed just who his patient was. “Karin, for fuck’s sake.”

“Hey Toshiro.” She awkwardly waved and after a moment added, “You know you have a terrible bedside manner.”

His eyebrow twitched, “It’s Dr. Hitsugaya.”

“Ya, Dr. Hitsugaya whatever, what’s my prognosis, can I go home? I want to go to bed.”

“Too bad. You’re not sleeping until I know your brain is fine or someone’s there to wake you up every two hours.”

Unfortunately, Karin’s list of people to monitor her for concussion symptoms was very short and consisted solely of Yuzu. Yuzu, who was also conveniently at her boyfriend’s for Christmas eve. Her brother and father were both working tonight and she was unsure when they’d be off. Toshiro seemed to sense this because he started to open his mouth, probably to suggest she stay at the hospital and she immediately cut him off.

“I am not staying at the hospital tonight so you can forget that.”

He gave her a withering look before responding.

“Karin, I can’t just release you and you know it. Stop being stubborn and just stay here.”

“No.”

There was a long-suffering sigh in response and then, “I guess it’s up to me to keep you entertained then.”

“Aren’t you the only ER doctor on right now? Don’t you have like other patients to deal with?” She asked defiantly, she would be going home to sleep even if it was the last thing she did. Which, it very well could be if her brain was seriously injured but she didn’t really want to worry about that.  

His eyebrow began to twitch again at this. “Yes, Karin but they’re all in stable condition for now and contrary to popular belief we’re not usually that busy on Christmas. Besides my shift is almost over anyways. I was just going to go chart for the last half hour.”

“So, I can go to sleep then?”

“No, you can nap on the couch in my office and I’ll wake you up and take you to Ichigo’s. Rukia should be home if he isn’t.”

She almost argued back but then she saw the infamous unimpressed look on his handsome face and knew not to bother. This was not an argument she would win.

“Whatever.”

Karin was momentarily confused when instead of responding Toshiro left the room, practically sprinting through the archway to avoid the mistletoe. She eased herself off the bed to follow and quickly became aware which parts of her body had taken the brunt of her fall: mainly her butt and her head. What a great Christmas eve this was shaping up to be.

She managed to settle herself just as Toshiro appeared around the corner rolling a wheelchair. “Toshiro, no.”

“Karin, yes.”

This conversation repeated several times before Toshiro simply took it upon himself to forcefully shove her into the wheelchair and Karin found herself being awkwardly wheeled down the hallway. Today was definitely not her day. She supposed having one of the most attractive doctors in the hospital dote on you wasn’t the worst thing to happen.

Toshiro’s office was exactly what she expected it to be like, overly organized and painted in different shades of grey and blue. He brought the wheelchair to a stop next to his predictably grey but very comfortable looking couch. He moved to help her to the couch, but she waved him off.

“I’ll be back I just have to go collect some paperwork. Take a nap and I’ll wake you when it’s time to leave.”

She didn’t need to be told twice, she had already maneuvered herself onto the plush couch and was ready to conk off. The last thing she saw before her eyes closed was his scowling face as he ripped a sprig of mistletoe out of the doorjamb.

She woke next to blaring hospital lights as she was once again wheeled down the hallway, this time towards the parking garage. “Do I want to know how you got me back into this wheelchair without waking me up?”

“With great difficulty Kurosaki and that’s all you need to know.”

“Yeah, I definitely don’t want to know. So, there’s no way I can convince you to just drop me off at my apartment, right?”

“Not unless I stay the night Karin and to be honest me sleeping on the couch in that situation is not how I had imagined that would play out.”

Was that flirting? That was definitely flirting but she wasn’t going to call him out on it. She didn’t have the presence of mind to verbally spar with him right now. But clearly her sleep deprived brain had other ideas.

“So, tell me Toshiro who do you think is going to win the hospital mistletoe bet this year?”

 Why did she bring that up????

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He replied easily as they arrived at his black BMW.

“Yes, you do, and quite frankly I’m impressed I’ve never seen someone literally somersault away from a group of nurses.”

He groaned as he courteously opened her door before helping her inside his of course perfectly clean car.

“Karin it’s not funny, it’s gotten to the point where I dread the Christmas season. I considered an extended leave of absence for the whole month of December.” His face as he started the car told he was 100% serious.

“Why don’t you just kiss someone then?” She asked as he started the car, making his way towards her brother’s apartment. His unenthusiastic grunt was her only response.

“You could even rig the betting pool; I’d bet Matsumoto would help you and you would make bank.”

“Of course, you’d suggest something like that Kurosaki.”

“Yeah, just so long as I’m in on it, I want a piece of the cut.”

This time she got an amused look in response instead of annoyance.

“No but for real just pick a cute nurse, give her a smooch and it’s all over. Four Decembers is a long time to deal with this.” Somehow, she managed to refrain from suggesting she herself be this cute nurse, but she was sure if he really wanted, he could figure it out.

“They usually start in November.”

“Even worse.”

The rest of the ride was spent in their usual amicable silence. A few times Karin almost nodded off but was pleasantly awoken by a swift smack in the arm each time. Stupid doctor Toshiro.

They arrived at her brother’s apartment soon enough and she nearly had to fight Toshiro so he wouldn’t go inside and apprise Rukia of the whole situation. “I may be tired but I’m not tired enough not to let Rukia know I probably have a concussion.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyways thanks for taking care of me, I owe you a favour.” She said as she dragged herself out of the warm car and around towards the building entrance. She was about to give one more wave when the driver’s side window rolled down and Toshiro beckoned her over.

“Can I collect on my favour now?”

She gave him what she was sure was a very confused look, what could he possibly want from concussion Karin at 4 am on Christmas morning?

She bent down closer to the window to ask him what the hell he could possibly want from her when suddenly her sleepy brain was made aware of the fact that Toshiro Hitsugaya was suddenly holding something above her head, and it was mistletoe. Her eyes went back and forth between him and the plant for several seconds before she finally spoke.

“Really this is your big move. I’ve been waiting for this since I was 21 stupid.”

“Whatever Kurosaki are you going to put me out of my misery or do I have to spend the next 4 Decembers avoiding this stupid plant again.”

He looked entirely too pleased with himself but really Karin could deal with it if she got to kiss one of the hottest ER doctors. Who could complain?

The next morning Matsumoto won the betting pool and was seen discreetly sharing her earnings with a certain white-haired doctor and his new girlfriend in the break room a few days later.

[boboricha]

so alternate AU where Karin ends up going to med school and becoming a forensic pathologist bc Karin could not give 2 shits about her mental health (aka the slightly more angstier/dramatic AU vs the more cheerful Squad 7!Karin AU)

- So Karin goes to med school which is both the worst and not worst time. Many a days Karin ends up crawling home so Ururu and Jinta pick her up. Ururu drags her while Jinta complains about how she’s worrying Yuzu (but he’s also concerned shhhh)

- Bonds with Ishida a lot lol. Asking for all the help. 

- Chooses to become a doctor (forensic pathologist in particular) as her own way of accepting her heritage after spending years trying to ignore it (but does not want to follow in her brother’s shadow she wants to forge her own path)

- So, the memory powers thing that happened with Yuuichi. Feel like Karin could use that as a pathologist to really get to the bottom of how someone died ala Haunting of Hill House Theo style (but this kinda fucks her up a lot).

- I feel like she meets a bunch of psychics in this AU and builds her own weird perspective on the life and death thing (maybe like Mob Psycho charas, Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, Yakumo, Mahou Tsukai no Musume etc etc). Less battle with swords more mental battles.

- Anyway, eventually, she does pass on (maybe ordinary death/accident, maybe murder from a case/previous case, maybe saving someone) but again, younger body in Soul Society (but memory powers so she keeps those), which she can’t get used to so keeps complaining about how she’s too old for this shit which gets on Toshiro’s nerves A LOT (she’s still taller than him too, so she’s loving that -- 100 more years to go chibi).

- In this AU I’m thinking Soi Fon as her first captain but like maybe she squad hops idk for sure yet. But anyways Karin is really cunning and can strategize and is used to mind games. Less brute strength based. Still has a strong moral backbone though which is why idk if I could see her staying 2nd squad forever.

- In turn her zanpakuto is like brutal. I want it to be some manifestation of death. Still not happy with how it looks right now but something along the lines of the Shinigami from Death Note is how I imagine her zanpakuto to look. Which Karin hates. A giant troll, memes to much, but is honestly sorry about the pain it puts Karin through bc...

- Her bankai is what makes Soi Fon say she belongs in 12th. I’m thinking some messed up powers that Karin never wants to show b/c holy shit. Was thinking everything from a betting system with her organs or the more she gets hurt/bleeds the more stronger she becomes. Just...graphic. 

[volcanofireflame150]

A Soul meets another Seoul

Ch1; Ch5

Chapter 4

After our training session, the 9 guys came down to meet us thankfully we had time to go into our Gigai bodies, Shadow Phoenix put down the barrier, Suho asked, "So, who won the fight?" "Fight? We only trained," said Renji, "I am never fighting her ever again." "Why? Too chicken!" I teased. Renji groaned and shouted, "Yeah, right, like hell I am!! I'm just not risking to lose again 51 times, I'm sticking my loses being 50." "So, you think I'm strong enough to beat both Ichigo and Kenpachi?" I asked, being serious. He looked at me then said, "I think you are ready to test your strength against Ichigo, but Kenpachi? I don't know, though Ichigo might tell you if you beat him enough times." "Well, I've defeated him 5 times, he's probably still up for another round," I said, "Every time I want to fight you is because I want to test my strength, I mean, I need to know if I am as strong as Ichigo." "I mean you manage to beat your own adopted brother 50 times already," said Renji, "I mean, if you can beat Toshiro Hitsugaya enough times, you are probably surpassing of being strong like Ichigo, I think you are on your own level because you have the most deadliest weapon of all weapon history, not to mention you are a pyromancer." "Oh, right," I said, "Well, I like Fire alright, not to mention I wanted to be different from you guys, so I went with the Scythe as my weapon of choice." We were having this conversation while the 9 guys are busy with their own conversation, Renji said, "Not to mention, Zabimaru, my Zanpakuto, he's praising you that you are going to do great if you wish to fight and defeat Captain Kenpachi." "Before I can even do that, I need Ichigo to fight me 45 times in order for me to defeat Zaraki, just so I know that I'm not doing any cheap shots with my attacks," I said, "So, I'm going to ask for you to supervise the fights." "I think I might Captain Kuchiki's permission though," said Renji. I scoffed, "He might let you even though he and I make a great fighting team, remember?" "Oh yeah, you are always with him no matter what," he said, "I mean it's not like a time where he rudely said no." "Nah, he's too sweet and gentle after all, he was the one who led me into liking red roses," I said, "I mean, that explains on why Shuhei always sends me countless roses, making Byakuya jealous, he tries to deny but Shadow Phoenix always tells him to not lie." We were having breakfast and Xiumin handed me a cup of a weird liquid that I'm not familiar with, this was when Renji left, I just kept looking at it, Xiumin asked, "Why are you looking at it like you've never seen it before?" "What is this some kind of poison?" I asked, sounding scared. All of them looked at me like I had lost my head, Xiumin said, "No, it's coffee, try to taste it." "Sorry, I'm going to pass this over to you, where I am from I only heard of water and tea," I said, "You see, I have to go to a special merchant for my tea herbs." "I see," said Suho, "You have to forgive him, he's not familiar with someone who has never heard or seen coffee before." Renji came back and said to me, "There are 5 boxes waiting for you, Akari." "Oh, he actually found this place," I said. Renji looked at the 9 guys who were looking at me with surprised faces mixed with angry faces, I said, "Like I said, he is a special merchant, he mysteriously finds places that only he knows on not telling on where I am." As soon as I said that, they relaxed, Renji said, "Besides this merchant is very familiar on what she always gets when she's starting to get comfortable on where she is." "Yep," I said, "Because I'm getting the feeling that you are starting to welcome me and my friends with open arms." "Just as long as they keep this a secret," said Suho. Renji said, "I haven't told a soul about this place." I can see the guilt and fear all over Renji's face, he told Urahara on where this place is located, Renji notices me and blurts out, "Okay fine, I'm not much of a good lair, you see, we trust this merchant with our lives, basically the merchant found a way to get the location of this place out of me." "Yeah, he's an expert at that," I said, "But knowing him, he's also an expert at keeping a secret so there's nothing to worry about. After all, I only go to him to get stuff from his shop." "How do you get the money?" asked Suho. Renji said, "Remember that we have our own jobs." I nodded, "Which I can only say if I can trust you guys enough." "Even then, she'll tell you guys when she's ready," said Renji. I got done eating breakfast then decided to bring in the 5 boxes of Urahara's shop so brought them all in and decided to leave them in my room for the time being because I do not want my stuff combined with their stuff. Suho saw this and said, "You are always welcome to use our kitchen whenever you want, we will not touch your tea." "Thank you," I said, "But I'm fine bringing the boxes into my room." So I decided to call Ichigo over when I made my way to the training room that looks like a big colosseum for basically anything that's where Renji and myself were at. Renji led Ichigo to the exact room that I am in, Renji said, "The 9 guys are gone somewhere so we can go for how many rounds you want to do." "Great, I was hoping that would be the case," I said, "I'm surprised that they didn't ask for us." "Nah, like I said, I talk some sense into Suho, I'm guessing he is trying to be a gentleman like all of us, minus Kenpachi," said Renji. Ichigo got impatient like he always does, then said, "Enough talk, let's get started." "Ichigo," I whined, "I told you to wait for my signal!" "I'm sorry, when someone wants to fight me I tend to get impatient," he said. I sassed, "As if!! You always tend to goof around when you get ready to fight or about to attack so don't try me, Kurosaki!" Renji burst out laughing then I called him out, "You are no any different from him!" "Don't compare us!!" they shouted at the same time. We got ready to fight, Ichigo says, "Just so you know that I am not going easy on you once we start." "I just want to fight to kill time," I said, "It gets boring after a while with nothing to do." "Yeah, no Hollow activity, I guess it can get boring after a while but you'll get use to it," said Ichigo, "Trust me." "Alright here goes nothing," I said, bringing out Shadow Phoenix. Renji said, "I'm going to watch the fight so I can pinpoint on what you are doing wrong Akari, since there needs to be someone else to supervise the fight." "Can you correct my fighting stances, Ichigo?" I asked him. He nodded, "Of course since you are gonna be apart of this crew." I smiled, then went serious, "Alright let's do this!" "Right!" shouted Ichigo, "BAN!! KAI!! Zangetsu!" "Bankai! Shadow Phoenix!" I shouted. Renji butted in, "Now, is that her actual name or did she not tell you her full name?" "She prefers Shadow Phoenix, she loathes her true name," I said, "I respect her decision on being called Shadow Phoenix." "Ah, I see," Renji said, "Well, I'm not going to say it because she might unintentionally throw a fire ball at me." "Smart choice," we hear her say. I giggled at her response, Ichigo came close to me and asked, "Is she too heavy?" "Nah, she's very like any sword even though she is a Scythe," I said, "But I'm holding on to her with no issue at all." "Strange because she made me struggle," said Renji. Shadow Phoenix yelled at him, "That was because you compared me to Yumichika!" "I said I was sorry! I didn't mean you I meant Rangiku," said Renji. We went back to fighting, apparently there was nothing wrong with what I am doing with my attack moves, but Renji and Ichigo were helping me with my fighting stance, then again I did those mistakes on purpose, like this, I purposely misplaced where my footing needed to be, Ichigo sighed then said, "You have your foot in the wrong place." He was in the middle of demonstrating when I casted a Fire Burst at him, to my surprise, he dodged it, Renji shouted, "Cheap shot!" "No it wasn't!" I shouted, that was my first time witnessing a cheap shot. Ichigo said, "It was a cheap shot, I mean I did it to you, Renji. Nice job of faking me out so there is nothing wrong with your attacks moves and there is certainly nothing wrong with your fighting stances. I mean, c'mon, you are literally carrying a heavy Scythe, you should be carrying it like that!" Then I noticed that there was the invisible barrier, I looked over to Renji then looked up there were the 9 guys again, Renji noticed as well, "Well, shit, they got done fast. How long were we going?" "At least 3 hours," I said, "But that was just practice, I was just getting warmed up!" "Same here, I wanna see those fire attacks of yours," said Ichigo, "Right now it's Akari Itsuki Hitsugaya vs Ichigo Kurosaki!" "Heh, bring it," I said, went back to my fighting stance. 5 hours go by, I managed to beat Ichigo at least 8 times now, he was beaten up but thankfully I only used my fire moves I couldn't damage his gorgeous skin, then Ichigo says, "You know you could always slice me any time you want to make close contact." "Yeah but I don't want to damage your handsomely gorgeous skin," I said. Renji snapped, "Hey wait a moment here, you always damage me!!" "That's because you can never keep that mouth of yours shut!" I shouted at him. We were in our Gigai bodies when this was going on, Ichigo says, "You know you are becoming more stronger than I thought you were going to be keep it and you'll do great." "Thanks, I was testing my strength so I can finally defeat Kenpachi into submission," I said. Ichigo told me, "You don't need to worry about him, let's just say I took care of him for you." "Huh?" I said, in total confusion. Renji said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you that Captain Zaraki says that he's sorry that he frightens you, apparently he was trying to get out of your shell because how can you fight when you are shy in battle but apparently you automatically switch from shy to aggressive real quick." We were in the dining room having our conversation when the 9 guys came in and heard when Renji said that I switch from being shy to total aggression in battle, Suho walked up and asked, "Is this true about her?" "Her being aggressive in battle, hell yes, you should totally see her fight some the enemies that we always face on a daily basis," said Ichigo. I gave him a side glance, he looked at me and goes, "On second though I'll wait until her signal." "Yeah don't forget Ichigo this is her journey not yours," said Renji, "And besides you are only here to visit." "Not to mention I think I did defeat Captain Kenpachi that one time, and that's how I manage to get Shadow Phoenix," I said, "I almost killed him but then you came and pulled me away you 2 because I was out of control." "Yeah, you were fighting for your freedom," said Ichigo, "Now you don't have to worry about fighting him, since I'm guessing I'm your last test of testing out your strength." I nodded, "I need to be ready for any fight that comes my way." "Not to mention, you want to impress your crush Shuhei," Renji teased. I threw a cup at him, then said, "Shut up, you dumbass!" Then Ichigo knelt down and asked, "When do you think you can take down a rival?" "I'm not gonna go that far," I said, "I just want to be part of your crew Ichigo. You said so yourself I need to defeat you at least 50 times in order to get in." "DID YOU SERIOUSLY SAY THAT TO HER, YOU NIMROD?!" Renji yelled. Ichigo said, "That was a LONG time ago, but if you want to keep on doing these fights then fine by me, I want to see on what you have up your sleeves." "Ha, I don't have anything to show you," I said, "That's basically all of my moves." "You haven't released that one attack though," said Renji, "You haven't used it on me." "That's because Shadow Phoenix told me to only use it when it's the final choice I need to make and save everyone when we are in serious danger," I said. Renji asked, "What was the attack called you never told me?" "Phoenix Rage, Phoenix Wrath, and the true final one is Super Nova," I said. Ichigo said, "Yeah, never mind about those attacks, I do not want to die." "Not unless you wear fire protection armor," said Renji. I warned him, "It will kill him no matter what he wears." "Oh shit, never mind then," said Renji, "No more fighting rounds then." "I never said that, I want to continue fighting until I'm in the crew," I said, while looking at Ichigo. Ichigo said, "I'm not going to talk you out of it so I guess that I'll wait until then." "Yep, but no matter what Ichigo," I said. He asked, "What is it?" "You will always be my guardian," I said. Renji said, "Awww that's so sweet, but hey what about me?" "You are also my guardian," I said, "But Ichigo acts more of a sword and you, Renji, you always protect me like a shield." "Ah, that's right," said Renji, "But of course we always switch those roles." "Which by the way Renji, you are terrible at playing as the sword," I said, "Ichigo is more of a sword than you." "Hey at least I tried!" he shouted.

Few months go by, the guys are now being more friendly and welcoming every time I'm around, Renji is still around because I always need a guide back to the Soul Society, I totally forgot that I was suppose to tell them on who I am and what we do. I got the attention of Sehun and he asked, "Alright what's on your mind, Akari?" "I just remember something," I said, "I was suppose to tell you guys on who I am and what I do." "You are Akari Itsuki, part of this mafia now, right?" asked Baekhyun. My heart wrenched, I looked at Renji, he looks at me and he notices that I have evolved into the world of the living, he began to walk away when I finally said, "No, I'm not apart of this gang of yours, I'm a part of something else. I'm not from this world, I'm not even born in the same plain as you guys and Ichigo." "What are you trying to say?" asked Suho. I finally told them all, "I, Itsuki Akari Hitsugaya." As soon as I said that, I got Renji's attention back on me when I finally said, "I am here to tell you that I came from a dimension called the Soul Society, I was born there not here, and my life job is being a Soul Reaper!" It got quiet so fast, Suho laughed like a mad man, "You want us to believe that?" "I know what happened to the 3 that used to be a part of this gang," I said. They are now looking at me with angry looks, this was when Kai and myself were starting to get a little serious, Kai asked, "What do you know about them?" Renji walked up and said, "Itsuki, here, was cursed with the lips of death." "I didn't mean for them to lose their lives, I couldn't control the curse, after a while Renji and the others managed to lift the curse and few days go by I was gifted with something else," I explained. It got super quiet, and we were having a nice pleasant meal together, I just had to bring the hammer down on them harshly, I softly said, "I think it's best to give you guys some space from me, don't worry I'll be somewhere else." So I left with Renji to be with Ichigo for the time being, I mean I did the right thing, there was no Hollow activity where I was, all the activity were always with Ichigo or invading the Soul Society, which by the way I hope that will never happen. So I was following Renji to where Ichigo was at, we were in front of a house, Ichigo answered, "What is it?" "Hey," said Renji, in a very soft tone, "May we come in, Ichigo?" "Uh yeah sure," he said, then stepped aside concerned of what is going on with me.

[otakugirlkrod]

Three Years Have Passed

A/N: Thank you all for your patience, support and reviews on ff.net and here on tumblr.  I can finally say that my story is UPDATED! I really hope that you guys like this chapter. (It might be a little dark) and before hand I wanted to say sorry if you find some mistakes in the grammar.

Anime: Fairy Tail

Couple: Gajevy

Rated: T (Language)

Status: On going

Chapter Nine: What did they do to you?

It took Gajeel’s team two days to get to Crocus. As soon as they set foot in the city, they noticed that something bad was about to happened.

Sachiko created a big lacrima to protect the group.

Gajeel looked at her. “What the hell are ya’ doin’?” Then he sensed something stronger and looked once again to the city.

All of a sudden the whole city was covered by a black sky and purple mist. In a blink of an eye everything was turned to stone but the sky remained the same.

“This is not a good thing. We have to hurry up!” Sachiko made the lacrima disappear and started running. The whole group followed her.

“This magic seems familiar.” Pantherlily was flying beside them while looking at the people that were petrified.

“It’s similar to the Thunder God Tribe’s stone eye magic.” Gajeel said.

“The ancient magic is developing new stages of every magic Miss Levy learned through the years.” Sachiko explained.

Levy-chan… Yasu thought.

Tsuyoshi and Katsumi were all bruised up, they were doing spell after spell trying to tame the person that was before them.

“I told you it was feeling threatened.” The guild master told his elite while panting.

“We were too late.” Katsumi replied with a hint of fear in her voice.

“Tsk. I don’t get it. How weak can you be Tsuyoshi?” Said the magic within Levy. It was using her body to create chaos. A long black dress was covering Levy’s body exposing part of her breast in a deep v neck and the dress had a cut on its left side to show Levy’s leg. Her long hair was down and her eyes were white. Her neck, shoulder, arms, forehead and part of her cheeks were stained with black and some purple runes were visible in both of her arms. The original beautiful hue of her eyes was gone.

“Although I have to thank you since your spells made me stronger.” She had a wicked smile. “Let me make this more private.” Levy’s head turned to Katsumi’s direction and extended her left arm to cast a spell. Katsumi tried her best to escape the room and started running through the hallway. “You were summoning me and now you’re running away? Don’t make me laugh.” Levy turned herself to a shadow and followed Katsumi.

This bitch is crazy. Katsumi thought as she was running for her life but she didn’t noticed she was being followed. All of the sudden Katsumi found herself crucified by iron shackles in the hallway’s wall. “What the fuck?!”

“Surprise” Levy’s possessed form stood before her and stabbed her in the chest with her arm now turned to an iron sword.

“You bitch.” Katsumi spit some of her blood to Levy’s smiling face.

Meanwhile, Team Natsu were now arriving Crocus.

“What happened here?” Wendy said nervously. She noticed that even the Sabertooth guild was turned to stone.

Lucy looked up to the dark sky. “Guys, do you feel that?” She said referring to the amount of magic power that she was sensing. All of them nodded.

Happy looked at Natsu’s determined yet worried face. “Natsu, what are we going to do to help Levy?” Happy said worriedly.

“I’m going to turn this magic into ashes.” The dragonslayer said seriously.

Natsu… Lucy looked at him worriedly.

“Metal head is not so far, we should go after him” the pink haired man told his comrades. “Let’s go.”

The red haired woman stood in front of an old crumbling building. “It’s here.” Sachiko said.

Gajeel rushed in and found nothing. Where are you Lev?

“They must be at the dungeon.” Sachiko said confident.

“Why I can’t sense her presence?” Gajeel turned around and asked the woman behind him. She kneeled and touched the dusty floor with both hands.

“I have to get rid of this runes first before we can find her.” She said while reading part of the now visible red runes. She focused all her magic to her hands and created a yellow magic circle. “OLD RUNES OF PROTECTION OF THE ANCIENT MAGIC I NOW CANCEL YOUR POWER! LED US TO YOUR ORIGIN!” Sachiko said as all the runes created a path to the dungeon.

Yasu was stunned. She’s so powerful.

“Gajeel, look!” The exceed said.

Gajeel nodded and followed the runes. I’m gonna save ya’ Lev.

“Looks like we have visitors. Don’t you think?” Levy gripped Tsuyoshi’s hair and forced him to look at her now red eyes. “Too sad that you’re not going to be alive by the time they arrived.”

Tsuyoshi was panting more than before. He was now at the verge of death. She has been torturing him.

The guild master was pale, covered in blood in multiple parts of his body and all bruised up. Levy absorbed all his magic and had him all tight up with plants.  “You know what? I’m going to let you see how I get rid of these intruders for your entertainment.” With that been said, she left the room but left the door opened so Tsuyoshi could see how one of elite died in the middle of the hallway.

Levy’s body turned to a shadow once again and hid.

Team Gajeel was now reaching the hallway that lead to the dungeon but stopped when they saw a figure hanging in the wall. “What the-” Gajeel stopped abruptly.

“T-t-that’s Katsumi.” Sachiko stuttered of fear. If that happened to her… She looked worriedly at Yasu that was still watching the scene. I won’t let anything bad happen to Master Toshiro.

“Levy-chan did this…” Yasu couldn’t believe his eyes.

Gajeel’s eyes were widened, he made sure to look at every detail. The position of this person, the iron shackles, the bruises…were almost the same as the ones he once did to Levy in his darkest time. It can’t be… He felt that he had a heartache.

Pantherlily reached the dungeon and saw how much blood was covering the walls and floor. Until he saw HIM. “GAJEEL! YOU SHOULD COME HERE!” The exceed called the iron dragonslayer.

Gajeel ran to dungeon and saw Tsuyoshi. That bastard! Gajeel gripped his shirt and forced the man to look at him in the eyes. “WHERE IS SHE?!”

Tuyoshi smirked. “I’m going to let you die just like me.”  

“GAJEEL LOOK OUT!” He heard Yasu’s voice. The iron dragonslayer turned around as he transformed his arms into swords. To his surprise, he noticed that Levy was his attacker and she also had her arms turned into swords.

Levy smirked while looking directly to Gajeel’s red eyes. “Are you looking for me?”

Gajeel stood back.“What did they do to ya’?”

“They woke me up.” She laughed.

“Levy what are you doing?” Pantherlily said as he transformed to his battle form and started walking closer to the scene.

“Don’t get any closer Lil’!” Gajeel warned his partner. “This thing is not Levy.” He said while looking at the person before him. Gajeel didn’t want to take his eyes off of her.

Levy raised an eyebrow to intensify her glare. “That’s right Kitty.”

“LEVY-CHAN!” Yasu arrived to the dungeon. “What happened to you?

Levy turned head to Yasu’s direction. “FALCON HEAVENWARD!” She rushed to him and kicked him. The attack sent Yasu flying back to the hallway but he was caught mid air by Sachiko. She held him tight and landed to the ground.

“Master, are you ok?” Sachiko asked worriedly.

Yasu spit some blood to the floor and cleaned up his mouth with his right hand. “Yeah, I’m good.”

Both of them stood up. “Master, she’s stronger now because the ancient magic is controlling her body. We have to find her soul so the real Levy-san can help us.”

“Alright, let’s do that!” He ran into the dungeon once again and Sachiko followed.

“Where is she?” Gajeel looked at Levy’s figure.

“It’s not going to be fun if I tell you, sweetheart.” She smirked evilly.

This thing is not going to spill the information we need. We have to fight for it. Pantherlily thought as he looked at her. But I don’t think Gajeel is going to be able to touch a single hair of Levy.

Levy started walking closer to Gajeel. “Why so serious?” She chuckled.  

“GET OUT OF HER!” Gajeel change his position to a fighting stance.

“Tsk” Levy covered herself with iron scales and head forward. “LET’S END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

“SOLID SCRIPT: THUNDERBOLT!” Yasu attacked Levy.

“AHH!” Levy screamed out of pain.

“SOLID SCRIPT: CHAINS! Sachiko tried to keep Levy’s body immobilized but she broke free as if was nothing. How is it possible?! I made sure to add an anti-magic spell in those chains!

Sachiko’s magic caught Levy’s attention. “So you are a magic canceller. Interesting. I might need you to get rid of every single one of you.” She turned to a shadow and appeared behind Sachiko. “But you are going to be a problem if I keep you alive.” Levy was about to touch Sachiko to absorb her magic but she was stopped when Pantherlily threw himself at her but she blocked him. “Are you really going after me Kitty?”

Sachiko took advantage of the confrontation between those two to run towards Yasu. “Master you have to leave now.” She was so worried about his safety that she didn’t want his life to be endangered.

“I’m not leaving until we save Levy-chan.” Yasu was determined.

While this was happening Levy heard every detail of the conversation. He’s your weakness. But her thoughts were interrupted when Lily started to use his swords skills at her. Damn! This kitten is good with the sword.  Levy took a step back and requip to Erza’s Black Wing Armor, broke through the ceiling and waited for Lily.  She knew that with this armor she had the ability to fly around for a short instance.

Lily looked at her and then said. “I’ll keep her distracted for a while.” The exceed then looked at Gajeel’s conflicted face. “Get a hold of yourself!” Then he flew towards Levy to confront her.

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” Yasu pushed Gajeel. “SNAP OUT OF IT!” Gajeel quickly responded and punched him.

“DON’T TOUCH ME FANCYPANTS, YOU KNOW NOTHING!” Gajeel didn’t want to fight Levy. He’s not going to be able to hurt her body again.

The time was still running and they still didn’t knew how to defeat the magic within Levy. Lily made sure to leave some bruises here and there but he knew that it wasn’t enough.

Levy was having a furiously swords fight with Pantherlily. “Your good but not as good as I am.” She made disappeared her sword and kicked Lily right in the stomach, used her flying ability to appeared behind him and placed her hands on the exceed’s back. “EVIL SPARK!” The magic electrocute him.

Pantherlily’s aera wings were damaged. “Damn it!” He said as he was falling.

“Sachiko, stay here with Gajeel! I’m going to help Lily!” Yasu ordered. “SOLID SCRIPT: WINGS!” The words appeared in his back and he flew to the exceed.

Levy noticed his moves and casted “Darkness Stream”. Two dark big hands held Lily and Yasu, squeezed them and threw them full force to the ground.

They ground shook and that’s when Gajeel notice that a bright light was now visible in one of the dungeon’s brick.

Flashback

Gajeel felt a light weight in his arms. Huh? He watched her physical body fall but he was still holding her. “LEV! LEV! Can you hear me?”

She vaguely opened her eyes. “Gajeel…”

“What’s happening?” He noticed that the Levy he was holding was glowing and was wearing a white dress.

“La-cri-ma…my life…my soul…” She said before disappearing from his arms.

“Lacrima? What do you mean?” Gajeel was confused.

End of Flashback

That’s the lacrima! Gajeel ran to Lily and notice that he was now in his chibi form. He took him and placed him in a corner. “Don’t worry Lil’, I just found a way to bring her back.”

Levy landed very gently to the ground as she changed once again to the black long dress. One down, three to go. She said as she looked around but stopped when she took a glance of Sachiko helping Yasu.

“EXPLOSION BULLET!” Levy extended her right hand in direction to Yasu and formed a black beam-like bullet.

Sachiko pushed Yasu and the spell pierced the left side of her body. SACHIKO!!! Yasu held her before she hit the ground and looked at her pained face. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” He said desperately. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?”

Sachiko smiled and placed her right bloody hand in his cheek softly. “I would not forgive myself if something happened to you too.”

“WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?!” Yasu was hurt and mad.

“I have always love you more than anything, Yasu.”

Hearing her say his first name gave Yasu chills and a heartache. “Don’t say that just yet, you will get out of this.” He held her tightly to his chest.

“You are the only one…that I have left.” His voice trembled. Yasu’s hazel eyes started watering.

“I’m so sorry.” He heard her say. “I’m sorry for not being brave enough, for not being strong enough, and for not being able to protect you after this…”

“Don’t talk like these are your last words” Yasu tried to maintain a tough attitude but he failed. “Please…” He started crying. Minute by minute he was starting to notice that Sachiko’s body was getting colder. “I-I can help you. Solid Script: Hea-” He couldn’t finish casting his spell because Sachiko placed her free hand in his and used the little magic she had left to cancel it.

“Don’t waste your magic in a simple maid like me. Miss Levy needs you.” She said between bloody coughs.

“SHUT UP!” Yasu said angrily. “Levy has Gajeel and that will be enough, but I need you to stay by my side…like always.” He casted the “Heat” spell in his body and hold her tight to his body. Both of them were now surrounded by a blue mist.

I don’t want this moment to end… Sachiko thought at she embraced his warmth.

Pathetic. Levy thought as she watched the scene, but noticed that the dragonslayer was no longer visible. Where are you? She looked around and noticed that a shadow was getting closer to the lacrima. There you are. She turned herself in a shadow, took him by surprised and threw him out of his spell.

Pantherlily was worried. She did the exact same thing he did to Rogue in the Grand Magic Games.

Gajeel looked up and noticed that she was looking for the bright light.

“Are you looking for this?” Levy was holding the lacrima that held her remnants. But instead of being shinny it was dark. She covered it with black magic to prevent the light from coming out and squeezed it hard enough that it cracked a little.

“Levy don’t!” Gajeel shouted desperately.

“I already told you, I’m not that weakling!” She squeezed the lacrima more.

“Gajeel, if we want to save her, we have to fight back!” Pantherlily told his friend.

Levy smirked. “What are you going to do? Crucify this body again? Ha! Pathetic!”

Gajeel’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe what he heard. Levy would never say such thing, she forgive his past actions.

“I know you still have some Phantom Lord spirit in you. Show me.”

This person was playing with Gajeel’s head and heart. “I will never go back to being a piece of shit.” The iron dragon slayer said seriously. “I found something that will always lead me to the light.”

“It’s unfortunate that you’re going to lose it in a matter of seconds.”

“I’m sorry Levy” Gajeel apologized and this made the person before him look at him curiously.

“What are you-” Levy was cut off by one of Gajeel’s attack. The lacrima flew through the air and she knew that Gajeel want it. While she was being sent backwards she casted “Dark Blades” to break what’s left of the lacrima.

TBC

You can check out the whole story here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12446283/8/Three-years-have-passed

( Or in my tumblr page: search #tyhp )

[zephfair]

Day 1 Bleach ficlet Grimmichi

Day 1: Boyband AU

Rated T for language

Grimmjow/Ichigo

From this 30-Day AU Challenge by tomowowowo and boomchickfanfiction

“Are you ready yet, Ichigo?” Rukia knocked harder on the hotel room door, and Ichigo swore under his breath.

“Just a minute,” he called back, scowling his trademark expression as he fought to get his hair tousled just right. He’d already spent far longer in the bathroom than he normally did but he’d heard enough times from Rukia that it was a Very Important Night and he couldn’t disappoint.

Finally satisfied with his reflection, he grabbed his jacket and opened the door to find Rukia waiting.

“Get on the ball. We will not be late,” she informed him.

“Yes ma’am.”

Rukia rolled her eyes at the heavy sarcasm but led him to join the others in the hotel lobby. Ichigo wondered again why she even bothered to keep her job as a personal assistant—or cat wrangler as she called it because “have you ever tried to herd cats, Ichigo? It’s impossible, just like trying to deal with your sorry asses.”

But she did her best to help keep track of the most popular boyband on the planet, Shinigami.

Ichigo still had trouble believing he was a member of Shinigami and when she was in a mood, Rukia told him she doubted it too. If only the millions of fangirls and boys knew the things she did about the carefully coiffed, professionally styled, perfectly polished group.

The group members had been chosen as much for their appeal to each and any fan’s taste as for their musical and vocal abilities.

Byakuya: the silent, strong, stoic one who was hot in a distinctly grown-up way. Renji: the smirking one who looked like a rebel with his loud hair and eye-catching tattoos. Toshiro: the smol adorably grumpy one who the fans dreamed of being able to make smile. Hanatarou: the cute boy next door who brought out the protective side of every girl or boy who ever saw him stumble through a dance routine and daydreamed of catching him when he inevitably fell off the stage into a fan’s arms.

And Ichigo: the handsome energetic one who looked like a bad boy punk but was actually a total sweetheart who doted on his little sisters and did volunteer work with children. Or so he was described by the public relations corps.

Each member had been carefully selected by the record label to be the perfect ingredients in a successful and popular boy group. Their diverse looks and public personas were also squeaky clean and therefore palatable to all the parents who held the purse-strings of their tweens and teens.

Ichigo still liked to believe that his vocal talent played in a role in him being chosen for the group. Somehow.

Byakuya was giving him The Look now, and motioning Rukia to his side. Even then Ichigo could clearly hear his admonition for Rukia to stay close at Ichigo’s side all night and “keep him away from any...undesirables.”

Ichigo scowled again. He pretended not to know to whom Byakuya was referring.

Their usual security detail led by Zaraki manhandled them through the screaming crowd of fans that somehow always managed to find their hotels and into the waiting SUVs. Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief when he was safely inside then patted down his clothes to make sure they were still all there.

Rukia was cackling from the very rear seat that she shared with Renji who was looking a little paler than usual and clutching his head bandanna.

“Dude, what happened?” Ichigo eyeballed his extreme reaction.

“One of them pinched my ass while another grabbed at my hair,” the traumatized Renji answered. Then he elbowed Rukia who was holding her stomach from laughing. “They’re getting worse!”

“Oh Renji. The look on your face was priceless,” she sputtered.

Renji crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. Ichigo turned to let them have the little bit of alone time they could sneak together, away from prying eyes, but then Rukia poked him in the back of the head.

“The you-know-whos are going to be there tonight, so Byakuya commanded me to follow you around. He wants you on your best behavior because this merger could be very good for both our labels. But I would like to actually enjoy an industry party for once with my boyfriend,” Rukia poked him again harder, “so I’m going to ask you, just this once, as my friend, please don’t screw it up.”

Ichigo was immediately offended that she thought he would fuck it up. “I am offended that you think I will fuck it up,” he told her and swatted away at her poking finger.

“We all know what happens every time single time you run into him.”

“Who are you talking about?” Renji chimed in, apparently getting over his sulk in the face of Rukia’s indifference.

“The Arrancars. Their lead guitarist,” Rukia told him.

“Oh yeah, the big blue bastard,” Renji said. “Yeah, you do seem to get into a lot of fights with him.”

“Yes. Fights.” Rukia said in a carefully even voice.

Ichigo was glad it was dark enough to hide his hot face. “I can’t help it. He’s such an egotistical asshole. He’s always making fun of me, of us, for being in a ‘boyband.’” Ichigo made sure they could see his air quotes. “As if we don’t actually work just as hard as his douchey rock band. I’d like to see them commit to the kind of tours we do, with all the dancing and choreography and the vocal work. All he’s gotta do is strut out there in his ridiculous tight leather pants and play his stupid guitar and give that asinine smirk to all the girls...”

There was a pause before Rukia slapped the back of his head. “You can’t let him rile you up so much. Control yourself.”

“I am controlling myself,” Ichigo snapped. “I always control myself.”

“Sure,” Rukia made it a three-syllable word. “That’s why I always find you in dark corners, shadowed balconies and, in one particularly memorable occasion, a broom closet with him.” She coughed. “Fighting.”

“He’s a fuckwit,” Ichigo refused to give in. “And he was drunk.”

“Every time?”

“He’s always drunk.”

“You barely drink, so what’s your excuse?”

“That he’s a total fuckwit.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just asking you—for once—to rein it in and stay away from him. And if he comes after you,” Rukia held up a hand to forestall his argument, “just smile and ignore him. And for the love of all that’s holy, do not go anywhere alone with him. I really do not want to walk in on that. Again. Byakuya refuses to pay me for the emotional distress that’s caused.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” Ichigo deadpanned.

“Babe, you shouldn’t go trying to break up their fights. That could be dangerous,” Renji said.

She waved off his honest concern. “I have nothing to be afraid of when they’re alone together.”

“But I’ve seen them fight,” Renji insisted. “They start off bitching and yelling at each other, but soon or later, one of them takes a swing.”

“And then the other one pulls them out somewhere where they won’t be disturbed,” Rukia finished. “It’s very simple, Renji, but I’m not surprised you’re the only one who hasn’t caught on.”

“Caught on to what?” Now Renji was the one offended.

“That they fight best alone. With their mouths.” She gave him a look that went right over Renji’s head so she sighed and tried again. “Ichigo likes to punch him in the mouth. Softly. With his own mouth. And sometimes other body parts.”

Ichigo couldn’t turn to watch Renji mutter the words back until it clicked. He hunched his shoulders when Renji yelled, “Oh my god!” and slapped his back. “Why didn’t you tell me you were getting it on with that asshat?”

“Because he’s an asshat,” Ichigo said and tried to shrink further. “And we aren’t getting it on.”

“You mean you aren’t seeing each other? Or hooking up?”

“No, no way.” Ichigo shrugged. “It’s only when we see each other and he opens his mouth and pisses me off. Then somehow we’re pushing and shoving and all I want to do is hit him. But instead it ends up with one of us on our knees or—”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Renji interrupted. “If Byakua isn’t paying for Rukia’s therapy, he sure as hell isn’t going to pay for mine. But if this happens a lot, and you enjoy it apparently, then why don’t you hook up for real?”

“I’m not interested,” Ichigo said.

“It’s only every awards show, red carpet event, label party, any and every time your bands cross paths,” Rukia told Renji sotto voce.

“Jeez, Ichigo. Even if the dude is a complete assmunch, you could give it a try,” Renji suggested.

“If we were left alone for more than 30 minutes, I’d kill him,” Ichigo said flatly.

“Well, you know what they call the little death,” Rukia tittered and when Renji inquired she informed him, “Orgasms, Renji. Don’t you ever read? Ichigo, just keep it together tonight. Don’t let him bait you. Don’t go anywhere alone with him. Don’t stick your tongue down his throat or your hand down his pants or your mouth down his—”

“I got it, thanks. I’ll try to be on my best behavior.”

“Thank yo—”

“As long as he doesn’t start anything.”

Rukia knew how that would end. “Fuck.”

*******

Ichigo kept his promise. He tried. He tried so hard to be on his model boyband behavior. He smiled until his cheeks ached from the unaccustomed strain. He shook hands and kissed cheeks. He laughed at bad jokes. He posed for selfies with several of the VIPs who wanted a picture for a young relative. He even left a couple voice mails specifically for the children of several of the bigwigs.

And it all went to hell when Rukia sidled up to him and hid her mouth behind her champagne flute. “The Arrancars are finally here. Unfashionably late.”

“Probably busy with another orgy on their tour bus.” Ichigo snatched a flute off a nearby tray and drained it quickly.

“They do have some wild times,” Rukia sighed, making him choke. “I have some crazy memories of one party in a hotel room that left the place trashed. Stereotypical rock star nonsense but wow.” She met Ichigo’s shocked expression and smiled evilly. “Just because you can’t get along with them doesn’t mean that everyone is off limits. I’ve had some fun times with Nel.”

“Nel seems cool,” Ichigo reluctantly agreed. “I just get so pissed off that Grimmjow thinks we’re so beneath them just because we’re called a boyband.”

“I know how important music is to you, Ichigo. And I know damn well how hard you work. Don’t be angry just because of Shinigami’s reputation. The Arrancars are decidedly not family safe,” she ignored his muttered orgies, “so you have different audiences. That doesn’t mean one is better than the other. You’re just different.”

“And that’s why I can’t be myself unless I break off and pursue a solo career.”

Rukia hushed him immediately. “Don’t say that out loud. Mr. Aizen might hear you.”

Ichigo rolled his eyes. “I thought that if this merger went through, things could change with the label.”

“Maybe, possibly.” Rukia chewed her lip for a second, indecision looking odd on her face. “Brother has said some things, and I know that Aizen handles a lot of the rock and indie acts, but Ichigo, you have to leave Shinigami on good terms, the best terms, actually, if you want them to ever sign you as a solo artist.”

“I know,” he sighed and touched her shoulder. “I know you’re just trying to help me, and thank you. Thanks for being my friend.”

“You can keep thanking me, just come with me right now.” Rukia was staring directly over his shoulder but when she pulled at his hand, he refused to move. He had a feeling he knew what was coming.

“Hey, lookie who it is. The juicy little strawberry,” came the onerous, obnoxious, unbearably smooth voice behind him. Ichigo felt as much as heard someone taking loud breaths into the top of his hair. “Would ya look at that? The teenybopper even smells like fucking strawberry. Mmm, I could just eat you up.” That was growled directly into his ear.

“Hello, Grimmjow. How are you tonight?” Ichigo kept his eyes locked on Rukia even as Grimmjow moved beside him and slung an arm over his shoulders.

“Fine, fine. Livin’ the dream. We just sold out our next three shows. How’s it going, playing up to all those little girls?”

“It’s going well, actually. I’m sure you’ve heard that Shinigami sold out every show on their upcoming tour,” Rukia said in her usual cool tone.

Ichigo could feel Grimmjow’s sneer. “I didn’t realize there were that many preschoolers around the country, or is it their mommies you like dancing for? That give you a thrill, shaking your ass for all the little girls and their mommies?”

Ichigo knew the smack on his ass was coming but he still almost bit his tongue. “At least our dancing looks a hell of a lot better than whatever it is you do up there on stage. I saw some footage and wondered if you were trying dancing or having a seizure.”

“I just go where the music takes me. And it gets me into a whole lot more panties than—”

“Would you look at that, Ichigo? Renji is calling us over,” Rukia blatantly lied because Renji was making his way through the crowd to them, waving happily, but Ichigo could appreciate her attempt to get him out of the situation.

“We have to go, Grimmjow. It wasn’t a pleasure, as always,” Ichigo said as he slipped out from under the muscled arm.

He was pretty sure he’d be able to count every one of Grimmjow’s teeth from the snarl but just then his bandmate Nnoitra pushed a beer bottle into his hand to distract him. Ichigo thought that maybe he wasn’t the only one being pushed into good behavior that night. Nnoitra just rolled his eye and started badmouthing the other guests to Grimmjow.

Ichigo followed Rukia who had retrieved Renji and set them on another goodwill round of the room keeping them as far from Grimmjow as possible. Ichigo sneaked peeks at him when he thought she wasn’t looking.

It wasn’t hard to keep track of him, not with his blue hair and decidedly rocker outfit of black leather pants and vest with only a bright purple tank underneath and a clunky silver choker around his neck. Ichigo found himself wanting to pull back on that choker to make Grimmjow expose the long cords of his neck. He already knew just how Grimmjow would moan and curse if Ichigo nibbled in the right places. Of course that was when Grimmjow looked up and met his eyes directly, smirking into his beer bottle before running his tongue around the opening and dipping it inside.

Ichigo hurriedly looked away.

Since Grimmjow and most of the Arrancars had taken up places at the bar, Ichigo couldn’t even get a drink except the champagne that roving waiters offered, and Rukia had cut him off after three.

He was tired from the long day and especially from acting like the lovable personality that Shinigami claimed he had, and he really just wanted to get a breath of fresh air. Or run away to the coast where he could relax and play his guitar all day. But right then, he’d settle for a moment away from the alternatively fawning and demanding executives.

When Rukia excused herself to the ladies’ room, Ichigo slipped away, not feeling any guilt about leaving Renji on his own. He’d never been to this particular luxury hotel, but he knew that all of them seemed to have a courtyard or pool somewhere that would be lonely that time of night.

He followed the faint scent of chlorine to a huge outdoor pool lined with chairs and lounges. Most of the lights were out for the night but the pool itself was illuminated with underwater light, and he was drawn by the beauty of the water rippling and the shadows it created.

He thought about kicking off his shoes and dipping his feet into the water, but instead took a lounge chair nearby in the shadows, next to a tiny deserted cabana for changing. He spread out and stretched, feeling better for the moment.

Of course it wouldn’t last.

“So this where you ran away to,” came the detestable voice, although slightly quieter than usual.

“I didn’t run away,” Ichigo said, keeping his voice also quiet as the night seemed to demand.

“You’re such a pussy,” Grimmjow informed him as he kicked the end of the lounge chair.

“Uh-huh, why’s that?”

“Because you let them walk all over you. You let them mold you into this little perfect idol image when inside, you’d fit in better with the Arrancars.”

“Womanizing, drunken, wannabe rockers?”

Grimmjow showed his teeth again but he didn’t disagree. “Wouldn’t that be more fun than having your Photoshopped poster hanging in every little girl’s room so they can cry themselves to sleep at night dreaming about you?”

Ichigo wanted to rise to the bait, he really truly did, but in that moment, he was tired. Tired of all of it. “You’re right, Grimmjow. I’ve always dreamed about being a performer, writing my own songs, playing my own shit, singing whatever I want to. But hey, if joining Shinigami got my foot in the door, then you know what? Fuck you. I have a career in music, I can keep doing what I love, and someday, maybe I’ll be able to do more.”

Grimmjow snorted loudly and the moment was gone. “Sounds like a bunch of bullshit excuses to me.” He kicked the lounge again. “You gotta go for what you really want. And be willing to fight for it.”

“I read that story about you in Rolling Stone, you know,” Ichigo said and Grimmjow froze in the motion of lighting a cigarette. “I thought it was really interesting, you talking all about your first band, your best friends playing in your buddy’s garage. How you like taking your guitar to the beach at night to write. And the most interesting part, really informational actually, was about how Sousuke Aizen picked you for lead guitarist of the Arrancars and how your buddies went on to act as roadies. So don’t get all high and mighty with me about how pure you are.”

“You son of a bitch.” Grimmjow’s cigarette and bottle hit the concrete with a crash as he leaned forward to grab Ichigo’s shirt and lift his chest out of the chair.

Ichigo moved quickly and broke his hold, rolling off the opposite side of the lounge as Grimmjow threw a punch where his head had been. He bounced to his feet and they glared at each other across the lounge.

“What? Did I hit a sore spot?”

“You fucking diva, how dare you—”

“I am so fucking sick of you always getting in my face and—”

“Dammit, you—”

“Always making fun—”

Grimmjow grabbed at him but the lounge chair tripped him up long enough for Ichigo to slip away again. He put his back to the cabana so Grimmjow couldn’t push him into the pool but soon realized his mistake when Grimmjow just kicked the lounge out of his path and stalked him.

“I am not going to fight you,” Ichigo lifted his chin and gave his sternest look.

“Who said anything about fighting?” Grimmjow caught his chin and tilted it up further then smothered his protest with his lips.

Ichigo huffed out a laugh through his nose when the kiss made him remember the silly description Rukia had said earlier. Grimmjow noticed his distraction. He nipped Ichigo’s bottom lip then pulled at it as he broke the kiss, stretching it hard for an instant.

“What the fuck’s your problem?” He mouthed hard at the hinge of Ichigo’s jaw then licked it and went right to the spot below Ichigo’s ear that made him melt.

“Just something Rukia said tonight. About us fighting.”

“Shit. So they’re all catching on to our thing?”

Ichigo pulled back reluctantly, just far enough to see Grimmjow’s eyes. “We have a thing?”

Grimmjow shrugged. “Fighting as foreplay. I like fighting with you as much as I like,” he grabbed Ichigo’s crotch in a crude finish to his statement.

“Well, Rukia told Renji that I punch you softly in the mouth. With my mouth. It was pretty funny.”

“Not softly,” Grimmjow bit his lip harder as his hand began to knead firmly.

“We could sometimes,” Ichigo breathed into Grimmjow’s hot mouth and took a giant leap. “You could come back to my room and we could do it in an actual bed.”

Grimmjow’s mouth and hand stopped, and Ichigo swore he could feel Grimmjow thinking before he said, “If I do that, how am I gonna sneak out before the rest of the little boys see me?”

“Well, you should probably stay until they go down to breakfast and then we’ll figure out something.”

“So you don’t want me to stay for breakfast?”

Ichigo swallowed hard and met his eyes. “If you want to stay for breakfast, they have great room service. Lunch and dinner too.”

The grin was slow and still showed too many teeth but it was also surprisingly sincere. “I guess I could find out.”

“Cool,” Ichigo said, palming the back of his head and pulling him back down for another kiss.

“But first...” Grimmjow pushed Ichigo’s back against the cabana door. “Don’t you wanna go skinny-dipping?”

“And be caught by all those label execs bare-assed naked? Hell no. Let’s save that for my room. Why don’t we just...”

Grimmjow’s rumbling moan was answer enough.

*******

Rukia didn’t yell when she got back and saw Renji alone. He was so obviously feeling bad about letting her down and losing Ichigo that it took all the fun out of smacking him. Instead she’d defer his punishment to later.

Then Byakuya joined them and cut right to the chase. “Shouldn’t you be out finding Ichigo?”

“He could be anywhere, brother,” she pointed out. “He promised he would be on his best behavior tonight.”

“You know he’s out there looking for a fight with that Jaegerjaques,” Byakuya said.

“A fight, yes,” Rukia exchanged looks with Toshiro who merely rolled his eyes as he joined them.

“I believe I saw Grimmjow heading toward the pool a little while ago,” Toshiro said helpfully.

“Then why don’t you go retrieve Ichigo. I’ll make our excuses and we can then leave,” Byakuya said and Rukia demurred with a slight head bow.

Renji offered to join her but she stalked off alone. God help that fool when she found him, if he was doing what she thought he was doing, She didn’t care if she’d have to borrow a ladder to reach them, she would love to just bang their heads together.

On second thought, it seemed they were doing all right banging together, she smirked as she approached the dark cabana. She took a long moment to enjoy the low moans and breathy groans coming from inside and smiled outright. She’d wait a few minutes before shouting for Ichigo.

And she’d have a quiet word with her brother. Maybe it was time for a musical collaboration, one that could finally get the two off their asses. Maybe they had vastly different audiences, but sometimes that could make it even better. Especially if the two brought even half their passion to their music.

It would surely be a chart topper.

[lemonadethefifthart]

A Story of Snow and Peaches Chapter 4

Hitsuhina Week 2017

Day 5 - Vow

Author’s Note: This is gonna involve a lot of timeskips. Also, it’s pretty long. Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks for reading!

“Look, Shiro-chan! They’ve bloomed!” Hinamori pointed at the cluster of trees whose limbs were thickly covered with pale pink flowers. Unable to contain her excitement, she dashed ahead, stretched out her arms and spun around under the branches. She laughed as the delicate petals rained down on her face, arms, and hands. 

“Geez, you’re such a kid,” muttered her friend. She didn’t seem to hear him because she didn’t stop dancing under the trees’ outstretched boughs that showered her with blossoms. Stretched across her rosy face was a blindingly bright smile...a beautiful smile.

Heat crept up Toshiro’s cheeks as he wondered about the foreign feeling he was experiencing. His granny was waiting for them back home, but she let her carry on with her silly dance. Because silently, secretly, he loved seeing her happy like this. Maybe the snowy-haired boy felt this way because he saw her crying while granny treated her dislocated shoulder a month ago. Or maybe it was because yet another group of kids were acting hostile to her for hanging out with him.

But whatever the reason, Toshiro wanted her to stay like this - happy and smiling and carefree. 

The young boy looked up when he heard the sound of footsteps walking towards his house. It’s been a year since Hinamori left for the Shinigami Academy, but she still came to visit him and his grandmother every week. No matter how grumpy he was sometimes, no matter how many watermelon seeds he spat at her, no matter how tired she was from her training...she still kept coming back.

And he was glad about that. When she announced that she was leaving, he knew that he’d miss ol’ Bedwetter Momo. Just a tiny bit. Not that I’ll ever admit it, he huffed internally. Besides, he still remembered the fire he saw burning in her eyes the day she stood up for him. He knew she’d make a brilliant shinigami. So why stop her from going by showing that he would miss her?

“You’ve grown taller, Hinamori-chan,” remarked their granny. “Did I,” she said, “or is it just that Shiro-chan grew shorter?” Those were the kinds of jokes the three of them shared on her days off. They’d spend the mornings helping their granny with work, then spend the afternoons eating watermelon or walking around the village. At the end of the day, the three of them would exchange stories. 

Hinamori always entertained them with stories about her friends and their misadventures. “A few days ago, we got attacked by real hollows!” she exclaimed, waving her arms dramatically. Their granny gasped and put a hand to her chest. “Don’t worry! Luckily, Aizen-san and Gin-san saved us just in time,” the petite brunette said before gazing off into the distance, reminiscing about the incident. Toshiro frowned. His granny breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon, it was time for the young shinigami-in-training to leave. With a cheerful wave, she headed back to the Academy. But even after she disappeared from sight, the white-haired boy remained out on the porch. In his startlingly blue-green eyes was a knowing look, tinged every so slightly with sombreness. He’d noticed how Hinamori’s cinammon eyes shone with admiration and longing as they stared off to a certain moment in the past. That certain moment being, of course, Aizen and Gin coming to save her and her friends.

Hinamori still came to visit every week. But Toshiro wasn’t surprised when the number of hours she spent with them grew smaller and smaller.

The bully cowered on the ground. A fierce look blazed in his opponent’s icy eyes. “If you hurt Hinamori again, I’ll make sure you regret it,” the snowy-haired boy said. His anger was only quenched when the brunette put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go,” her warm voice said. Only then did he leave the bully alone.

He jumped when he felt her hand slip into his. “Thank you, Hitsugaya-kun,” she said. She kept her promise to call me by my actual name, he realised (albeit after he made that bully pretty much wet his pants). Smirking, he replied, “No problem, Bedwetter Momo.” While Hinamori was busy trying to defend her dignity, Toshiro silently made a promise. I’ll keep doing what I just did. I’ll protect Hinamori just like she protected me.

“AIZEN-TAICHOU!” the lieutenant’s scream tore out of her body. Something in her chestnut eyes seemed to shatter when she saw her captain’s body pinned to the side of a building, the long red trail a stark contrast to the white wall. The rage, shock, grief, and anguish in her face as she recklessly fought Kira was clear. And so was the rancour in the youngest captain’s voice after they took the two lieutenants away. “If you make Hinamori shed even a drop of blood, I’ll kill you,” he threatened. No, it wasn’t a threat, not quite. It was more of a promise.

His stoic eyes widened when Yamamoto moved aside to reveal a very familiar brunette behind him. 

“Hinamori!” 

Even though she was behind a screen, he and Rangiku could see the dark bags under her eyes and the fact that she’d grow so thin that her wrist bones showed. The watery smile plastered on her face was just a ghost of her usual buoyant expression.

“I’m sorry, Hitsugaya-kun. I should’ve believed in you more...I don’t know what got into me,” she said. Although his childhood friend’s attempt to kill him had unnerved him, seeing her like this upset him more. “It doesn’t bother me,” said Toshiro, “so you should just forget it. Also, you should get more sleep. You still look like a kid. I mean, look at Rangiku.” Flustered, she shot back immediately, “You’re one to talk, Hitsugaya-kun! And Rangiku-san is a unique example!” There. That was more like the Hinamori they all knew.

“Hinamori! How many times do I have to tell you?” She froze when she head the scolding tone in his voice. But when he looked up to face her, his blue-green eyes had melted, and he was smiling. Rather uncharacteristic for the stolid young captain.

“It’s not Hitsugaya-kun. It’s Hitsugaya-taichou.”

But the happy moment between the two quickly gave way when Hinamori pleaded with him not to kill her beloved Aizen-taichou. Her mind still couldn’t wrap around the recent events of his betrayal. Toshiro clenched his fist, his eyes turning to steel. He would make Aizen pay for what he did. He’d make sure that no one would ever hurt Hinamori like that again.

Toshiro was pushing his sword against Harribel’s when he sensed the familiar reiatsu. Rangiku gasped when Hinamori emerged, her zanpakutou smoking from the fireball she’d thrown at Apacci. 

“Don’t worry, Rangiku-san. I’m wearing my lieutenant’s badge to show that those in the 5th division are subordinate to me. That is why I’m here to fight Aizen-taichou, who is an enemy of Soul Society,” said Hinamori, smiling reassuringly. 

Harribel’s sword clashed against Toshiro’s again. “Your reiatsu just spiked a while ago. I wonder what could’ve caused that,” said Harribel. I have to focus on this battle...but Hinamori... But he’d seen the soft fire burning in her eyes as she faced the Fraccion. And so he decided to have faith in his childhood friend, put aside his worry for her and concentrate on defeating his opponent. 

“How careless of you to leave a shadow on the ice,” said Kyoraku as he rose up from the shadows behind her. “What...” began Hinamori. What was happening? Her whole body was wracked with pain from Ayon’s attack, which had broken pretty much every bone in her body. Just a second ago, she was lying on the ground with the other injured shinigami. Now, the captains were...fighting her? A snide smile was stretched across Hirako’s face. Soi-fon was facing her, ready to attack. 

“It’s over,” she faintly heard his familiar voice just before a sword impaled her through the chest. Her whole body erupted in pain, just like the time Aizen stabbed her. But even that pain couldn’t compare to how she felt when she realised that it was none other than her childhood friend who had stabbed her.

Why is he glaring at me like that? With so much hatred? She’d never seen him look at her like that. But the rage in his eyes were definitely directed at her. 

Why?

Her vision drowned in a pool of black, but she still fought to stay awake. Her dimmed senses grasped for information about her surroundings. The captains yelling Aizen’s name in anger.

Why?

She felt the sword being removed from her chest before a pair of arms picked her up gently. Finally, she broke the surface of the black pool. A captain’s haori, a shock of snowy hair, and a pair of horrified blue-green eyes swam into view. 

“Shiro-chan...why?” her broken voice reached out to her childhood friend. Just as she heard the scream rip out of his body, the black pool dragged her under again.

He’d broken his promise.

[volcanofireflame150]

A Soul meets another Seoul

Ch1; Ch19

Chapter 18

Renji's POV: We left Akari and Ichigo alone so they could sort this out, it bothers me that she was saying that last part towards Ichigo and no one else. Something tells me that she did not sleep well last night, then Shuhei asked, "What's going on between the 2?" "She didn't tell you," I told him, "Ichigo is now her new big brother." "Oh, that makes sense now," said Shuhei, "No wonder why she calls herself Akari Itsuki Kurosaki." "Hey, at least, she is no longer part of Squad 10 or any of the squads," said Rukia, "Because the captains will only tell her to only master Fire powers but she's becoming something else that no one will hold her back." "No one, but Ichigo might," said Uryu, "Akari will listen to him if she sees that there is no choice but to listen to him." I pointed at Uryu, saying, "He's got a point because remember that one Hollow that was so close of killing Akari and Rukia, you tried to tell her to run and let us handle it but she told you no, when Ichigo told her that she needs to heal up and wait for the right time, she listened to him and went to safety." "That's right," said Rukia, "He's always telling her things that she'll listen to him but no one else other than him." "Not entirely true," we heard Ichigo say, "It's just at the time she was struggling with Toshiro Hitsugaya, so I had to do something." "That's right," I said, "So, how is she?" "She told me that she recently had a nightmare where I turned against her," said Ichigo, "That's all she said, it got me to notice on how fidget she was being." "So, what did you say to her?" asked Shuhei. Ichigo said, "I told her that before that happens I am going to spend my free time spending time with her so if that does come true, she'll know what to do." "Sweet thinking," said Shuhei, "I'll wait until then so we can keep seeing each other." "Speaking of your relationship, Shuhei," said Ichigo. Uh oh, I sense the protective brother showing up when Shuhei asked, "What is it?" "How many times did she call you over to meet her somewhere?" asked Ichigo. Silence, shit, Ichigo is defending Akari this is a big step for her right now but this is for the best, Shuhei checked his Soul Page, I looked and looked the other noticing on the countless times she has called him. Ichigo said to him, "Thanks to you on not knowing when to pick up, her Soul Page got taken away from her in class last week." Yeah, guess how many missed calls Shuhei received? Almost 100, so Ichigo has the right mind to be like this right now, and no one is stepping in to say or do anything to stop him from scolding Shuhei. Then Ichigo let him off with a warning, "Look, I know that you were probably busy doing some duties but once in a while if she calls, pick up, she is your girlfriend after all!" Shuhei never looked so upset before, I guess he didn't realize that if Akari doesn't know on what's going with one of her closest loved ones, she automatically thinks of the worse and gets a nightmare right after I guess that is what happened with her. Then Ichigo finished off on what he was going to say, "Ignore her again, and I'll make sure that she doesn't have to deal with this ever again, you are a great guy but she is my little sister now and I'm doing everything I can to make her happy for as long as I can so upset her or make her go through that again and I will come for you, ya hear?" "Yes, Ichigo," said Shuhei. Ichigo then said, "Now, go to her and apologize, but better make it a good one because she's not like any one else in the Soul Society, I've come to realize that she's more human than someone who was born in the Soul Society." That got my attention, I asked, "Are you saying that she was born here after all?" "That's what I'm thinking," said Ichigo, "I can't be for sure, she's much more powerful than I am, I can't believe that I'm saying that." "Well, she's powerful in an elemental way," said Shuhei, "Didn't she say that she was chosen to be an Elemental wielder?" "That's right, she did say that," said Rukia, "Meanwhile the EXO guys have Majestic Octopus." "By the way, how are they doing?" asked Ichigo. Rukia said, "They are still in the Academy, same with the 3 guys." Shuhei went to Akari, I hope she's going to be alright, then I told Ichigo, "Also I couldn't believe what I heard from Shadow Phoenix." "What did you hear?" he asked. I told him, "She had a crush on Old man Zangetsu." He spat out his drink, coughing, then said, "She must be insane, falling for him!" "Be thankful that it's not your Hollow self," said Rukia. Ichigo said, "Don't speak too soon, Rukia, love is still love even in spirit form." I had to ask, "Has Levy fallen for someone?" "Of course I did," she said, scaring us all. Uryu said, "Geez! Don't do that!" "Don't tell me what to do," she said, giving him sass. Damn, he's being told by a Water Elemental, I asked, "Who was it?" "Oh, it never went away," she said, "He's with Captain Hitsugaya." "Oh wow," said Ichigo, "I wonder who has a crush on Shuhei's." "Funny that you should say that," said Levy, "because you just said her name." "Shadow Phoenix? Then who is in love with Old Man Zangetsu?" asked Ichigo. Levy said, "Believe it or not, Blizzard is in love with him, and speaking of your Hollow side." "Uh no, don't tell me," said Ichigo, "Serene Jewel." "Uh, Ichigo, you might want to not mention that name because Talon is right behind you," I said, sounding scared knowing Talon is the husband of Serene Jewel. He sees him, instantly backs off on what he said, "I didn't know I swear!" "The one who is in love with your Hollow side happens to be the Cosmic Elemental, Cosmos," said Levy. Ichigo asked, "Of all the other spirits, why him?" "Why not him?" asked Levy. Ichigo said, "Because that's saying that she's in love with me, since we are the same person!" "Oh, your right," said Levy, "Well, it was a long time ago before you knew us and Akari." "Apparently," said Ichigo, "Anyway, who's her crush now?" Levy shrugged, "Haven't seen her in a while since we are separated because we can't be too far from our physical weapons." I'm completely lost on what she just said, Rukia explained it to me, "She means if they go too far they'll eventually first lose all of their elemental powers and left alone without their powers then they actually die." "Oh, damn, that's a harsh way to go," I said.

Akari's POV: When that was all going on, Shuhei came in while I was reading the book that Talon gave me to get a better understanding on different rock formations, I asked, "What brings you in here?" "I came here to say that I'm sorry for not picking up the phone when you were calling me," said Shuhei. I looked at him, asked, "Did Ichigo tell you on what happened 2 weeks ago?" "Yeah, wait, 2 weeks ago," said Shuhei, "What do you mean by that?" "I forgave you the last time we spent time with each other," I told him, "This situation has got nothing to do with that." "Then what is it?" asked Shuhei. I told him, "I met this guy named Grimmjow, we met at least 3 times this month, I wanted to burn him but something held me back like wanted me to let him live." "Did you?" he asked. I nodded, "Something tells me that he was meeting me for a reason and I can't shake that feeling off." "Maybe this time try to greet in a more friendly approach," said Shuhei, "That may change things." "But here's the thing, Shuhei, he has a Hollow hole where his stomach should be," I said to him. That got his attention, I met someone who is very bad, though might not be it's just I need to avoid conflict at all times because I do not want to risk Ichigo fighting my battles. Shuhei sees the gears turning then said, "Just tell Ichigo to back off on the battles you are involved in." "That's exactly what I am going to do," I said, getting up from his bed and went to him. Once I reached downstairs, I heard this from Renji, "Also, Ichigo, when are you going to let Akari fight her own battles?" "I just don't want to take the risk of losing her and her other friends," I heard Ichigo say, "I mean I want her to fight for her own battles but that guy seems too powerful for her to handle." That's right, Grimmjow did drain my fire powers, Rukia sees me, looks at them, "Guys, she's up." "Finally Shuhei apologized," said Ichigo. Shuhei came down, "That happened 2 weeks ago, she forgave me the last time we hung out. But this is what she wanted to talk to you about fighting her own battles." "That's right," I said, "Look I should've known that you were going to take the fight into your own hands but for once in a while let me fight alongside you, I don't want to feel like I'm worthless in battle." "You want to fight alongside me?" he asked, "But why?" "I want to remain at my brothers side for as long as I could," I said, "I can shield us up with multiple elements!" "Well, that took a turn on what we had in mind," said Renji, "We thought you would want to fight battles on your own." "Then how would I help my big brother?" I asked. It's official, I'm a part of the Kurosaki family, I spoke out, "I, Akari Itsuki, am proud to be calling myself Akari Itsuki Kurosaki, Ichigo, thank you for being my light!" Apparently that's all it took for me to obtain Layla's Light Scepter, Levy clapped her hands, "Great job getting Layla's scepter." "I thought it was a long sword with a cross shaped hilt," I said, in confusion. Levy said, "Keyword WAS, it still is though, but she never lets her wielder use that, so you can do blindness to your foes in battle." "How by saying Blinding Light?" I asked. I didn't know it would actually do that, thankfully we all had our eyes closed, after a while, Ichigo told me, "Never do that again, please." "Sorry I didn't know it would do that," I said, "Hey this would be a great light source when the lights go out or a blackout." Then I noticed the feeling went away, Renji asked, "Are you alright, Akari?" "I don't have that feeling anymore," I said, "Apparently that's all I needed to say." "Wow, so, you were feeling sick all day because of that," said Ichigo, "Why didn't you say that before school started?" "It formed when class started," I said to him.

When night appeared I was waking outside of Ichigo's room so he can have his privacy then he said, "You can come in now, Akari." I went in, saying, "Once again, thank you for letting me stay in the same room as you." "Anything for my new sister," said Ichigo, "Just make sure that you need to get something off your chest so you don't run into that problem ever again." "Sounds like a good idea, Ichigo," I said, "So, what should we talk about now?" "What do you want to do for your future?" he asked. I thought about this, "Maybe make a career of playing video games like I have seen people do online nowadays." "Anything else but that?" he asked. I thought about it for a while, then I pulled out all the books I was received, noticing the hard work Levy and Talon were in the making of their own books. Then I said, "Maybe become a writer one day." "Alright, that's 2," said Ichigo, "What's your 3rd?" "Singer or an artist," I said, "Like all of my fox drawings are really good." "Yeah and they might make you popular," said Ichigo, "Do you really want to become a online gamer?" "I don't seem why not, you can get paid for doing stuff like that," I told him, "I even looked it up." "You are one curious girl," Ichigo said, "But thankfully I can watch on all the stuff before you released into the public eye." "Yep, I mean, I got to do something other than Hollow duties," I said, "Plus, I am officially no longer part of the 13 squads because I realized how much you mean to me, Ichigo. You are a better brother than Toshiro Hitsugaya." "Then who's the better father?" asked Ichigo, "It better not be my father." "Well, I did say that I'm your new sister," I said, "So, that's counting him." Ichigo understood on where I am coming from, though then again, Isshin is always trying to charge at Ichigo and never at me, though I guess it's only his and Ichigo's thing. Then Ichigo asked, "When are you planning on staying here in the world of the living?" "It sounds like you don't want me for too long," I said, sounded hurt by that. He sat up quick, "No I didn't mean like that! I meant like aren't you worried that they might pull you away from here." I shook my head, "After all, I'm going to convince Shuhei to live here because I'm not moving anywhere." "Shuhei seems to understand you a lot better than anyone else can," said Ichigo, "Then again, you can tell me almost everything." "Even the graphic details?" I asked. He blushed then said, "I said almost everything I didn't mean that stuff." "Oh, I get it now," I said, giggling at his shy state. When I went to sleep, my dream started all sweet, then a certain darkness formed, I looked to what it was, I saw the figure saying, "We are going to have fun with you!" Then I heard a familiar voice saying, "Stay away from her, you assholes!" I saw that Ichigo's Hollow self was here in this dream? Wait this is not a dream, I asked Hichigo, "What are you doing here?" "I'm not letting the king lose his new sister to insanity," he said, "By the way, don't ask on why I call him that, I just do." "I wasn't going to but thank you for helping me," I said. Then as soon it got silent, everything became bright again, Hichigo said, "Please no hugs." I did anyways, I like giving hugs, don't judge me, I can hear him groan in disgust, I asked, "What, don't like affection?" "I just..don't get the point of showing affection to anyone who I don't know," said Hichigo. After that, I opened my eyes, looking to over where Ichigo is just laying there sleeping, then I hear Rukia's slight snoring, then I got out my smart phone that Asteria gave me, then started to watch Markiplier playing Prop Hunt, I couldn't help but laugh at the stupid and funny things that Mark and his friends were doing. I reached out to Mark saying 'Hey Mark, I came across your channel in hopes of finding a way to make me forget all the problems that I am currently dealing with, I just want to say that I hope I can become friends and met you someday' I posted the comment and never did I feel this joy in like forever. I finally fell back asleep, I had a really good dream for the rest of the night, when I woke up, Ichigo was already dressed for school, he said, "Come on hurry up, I don't want to be late." "I'll meet up with you," I said, "Give me some privacy." He did that, I changed to the uniform, then I noticed a red and green flower on the top of my head, Ichigo then came in, "What's taking you so- huh? Where did that come from?" I took it off, read a note saying 'Thank you for showing me what a hug is. signed Hollow side of your brother' I smiled, I'm glad that I can somewhat change someone. Ichigo comes over, takes the flower out of my hand, sets me down and started to think on what my hair should be like. I noticed he got out, a hair brush, spray bottle, and hair pins and ponytail holders. After a while, he put the flower in the masterpiece he created, I looked in the mirror, at least he tried his best to make it the same hairstyle that I had it in. I took off and made sure it was perfect on how he imagined on what it looked like, then put the flower back in where he had it. I looked at him, "Just perfecting it the way you were imaging, Ichigo, now let's go." "Don't you want breakfast?" asked Ichigo, "I mean you can still flash step there." "Oh yeah, well, I can eat toast while I'm on my way there," I said, "Besides I want to know on what it feels like without doing that. I only use that if that I need to go somewhere far away or emergencies only." "I see," said Ichigo, "Well, meet you at the school then."